Outrage After FEMA Melts Ice Meant for Hurricane Victims
Relief workers say thousands still in dire need of ice, though FEMA disagrees.
September 25, 2008— -- As victims of Hurricane Ike still await the arrival of disaster relief supplies, FEMA yesterday began melting ice meant for distribution to victims in what is being described as a cost-saving measure.
While nearly half a million Houston-area residents remain without power in the ravaged aftermath, causing food to rot and temperature-sensitive medication to spoil, and relief workers on the ground report that ice is desperately needed for those still without electricity, FEMA asserts all needs have been met.
"To ensure that we had enough to provide for everyone in need, we had too much," a FEMA spokesperson said of the ice. "The most cost efficient option was to dispose of it rather than try to preserve it." FEMA could not confirm how much ice it had melted but local reports said it was thousands of pallets.
The move has sparked outrage in the disaster relief community, where ice is considered a necessity when electricity is out for preserving food, medication, feeding formulas and keeping people cool in potentially-dangerous heat. Critics argued the move is irresponsible and indicative of a broken disaster relief system.
"It infuriates me to say the least," said Bishop James Dixon of the Community of Faith Church and the Dominion Community Development Corporation in Houston. "There are people who are desperate for what seems like it should be a simple commodity, and with them melting the commodity that these people are desperate for is unacceptable."
Ben Smilowitz, executive director of the Disaster Accountability Project, a nonpartisan organization that monitors the nation's disaster response, stressed that, "So long as hundreds of thousands are without power, there is a need for ice."
"Instead of disposing ice on a restricted-access airstrip 160 miles from Houston, why not dispose of the ice in Houston or hard-hit locations still out of power, send each ice truck to a different neighborhood," Smilowitz said. "The ice would be gone – fast."
Last week, ABC News reported that FEMA had changed its ice policy so that it would no longer provide ice in relief situations, instead passing the responsibility of purchasing, delivering and storing ice on to individual states and local governments.
Smilowitz said yesterday's move doesn't make sense because "FEMA has said over and over that they 'don't do ice,' but now they melt it."
In the current situation in Texas, the state had requested help and FEMA arranged for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to purchase ice and deliver it to the state, even though as the ice was melting yesterday, there was still confusion as to who was responsible for what.
"As far as I know FEMA is the one responsible for planning with the state and local officials for the acquisition of ice," said a FEMA spokesperson on the ground, before checking with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and clarifying that the Corps was actually in charge of the ice.
Even though it had previously stated that it is no longer in the ice business, FEMA did not explain why it was melting the ice, except for saying it is a "complicated inter-government agency relationship."
"The people on the ground don't know whether FEMA's going to help them, whether their state's going to help them, whether the Red Cross is going to help them, or who is going to help them," said Smilowitz. "We watched decisions made on a case by case basis since Ike and that's not consistent with any planning or preparation lessons learned after Katrina."
The Houston Chronicle reported that as more and more trucks kept arriving at the airfield yesterday to unload their ice for melting, FEMA officials and security guards "refused to allow reporters onto the property, and initially objected to a reporter standing on a public road near the fence to try to interview truckers inside the fence."
According to the Chronicle, when some truck drivers began speaking with a reporter, a man sporting a FEMA shirt arrived immediately and threatened to have the drivers fired for talking. The reporter was later told by a security guard that the drivers had signed an agreement prohibiting them from speaking to the media.
Local residents immediately reacted by posting comments online at the Chronicle's web site, numbering over 200 by this morning.
One person wrote, "No need for ICE???? Are you kidding??? As someone who has been without power since the 5:17 p.m., September 12, I need ice! The freezer has long since thawed, and it is a struggle to keep my food cold. I am not alone in this situation. The grocery stores are open, but none in my area have any ice. This is an example of gross miscommunication!"
Another person weighed in saying, "Please send that ice to Spring Branch area - alot of stores are not open and the people could use it!"
Others were furious. "I am one of the 1/4 million Centerpoint customers still with no electricity. I have had the hardest time finding ice every couple of days for our food & beverages. To know FEMA is throwing that much ice away when it's needed so badly infuriates me!" wrote one reader.
"Well, my neighborhood is still without power, for at least another week (no sign of replacement poles and transformers yet). We could sure use some of that ice," wrote another.
FEMA told ABC News that state and local officials indicated that demands for ice were dropping off and that it offered the surplus to organizations but had just two takers. Officials with the State of Texas did not immediately return calls for comment.
The FEMA spokesperson said he didn't know how much it would cost to continue to store the ice, but knew that disposing of it under the hot sun was "free."
But Smilowitz said that as hundreds of thousands of Texans remain stranded without power, penny-pinching does not begin to justify melting the ice. "It's basically putting a price tag on a disaster relief necessity," he said.
"It seems to me that if we can find hundreds of billions of dollars to clean up Wall Street we can afford to deliver ice to the main streets of small-town Texas," Smilowitz added. "If that's too much for FEMA to handle, then perhaps it's time to reevaluate our leadership. This is about how we support our neighbors during their greatest times of need."
Bishop Dixon says this is indeed one of the greatest times of need for his community and that "issues of ice and other things related to electricity are still major, major challenges." His organization, he added, was never told about the "ice surplus" and could have greatly benefited if they had been offered some.
"It appears like we've just been abandoned," he said.