Coctails in Kennebunkport? Are George and Barbara Bush getting ready to throw some sort of disaster celebration party at their second home on the coast of Maine?
Word comes from Portland, Maine, that FEMA has sent “hundreds of big rigs, loaded with tons of ice and water meant for hurricane Katrina victims” to Portland, which is the largest town near the Bush second home in Kennebunkport.
In the coming days, the city is expecting 200 to 300 trucks filled with ice and water. For now, the ice and water will be kept at a cold storage warehouse in Portland. Portland Transportation Director, Jeff Monroe says he believes storage facilities South of here are full. That’s why it came to Portland. It’s unclear if or when the supplies will make it to the gulf coast.
One of the truck drivers involved complained that moving the ice was a waste of time and money:
“The $9,000 they’re paying me to move this load should have gone to some family down there,” said Loren Reeves, who hauled his load of ice from Long Island, N.Y., to Alabama before being sent to Maine. “There is definitely millions being wasted that could go to people who need it.”
FEMA spokesperson Kathy Cable explained:
“It’s more economical to store them and be able to use them right away. When we need it, we need all of it and we need it now. It’s better to have it stored than to go out and buy it.”
This is questionable. Temperatures around New Orleans in September are generally in the 90’s, with humidity to match. Seems like somebody down there could use some ice at some point soon. You don’t have to be an efficiency expert to see that it won’t be too helpful to have the ice stored 1,500 miles away.
Hat tip to Marshall
The Bush/Cheney administration is experiencing a MELTDOWN!
I suggest FEMA send the ice and water to Washington, D.C. for this weekend’s historical Peace Vigil led by Cindy Sheehan. They are expecting at least 100,000 people to show up in support of peace.
For further info:
http://www.unitedforpeace.org
Sounds like the empty fuel trucks in Iraq.. Are these guys subcontractors under Halliburton- which is probably paid by the mile, etc. Cost + % of cost is how the money flows..
It sounds like the hundreds of tons of food sent by Britain, that will be incinerated; the buses that were commandeered by FEMA; the medical supplies and doctors who were turned away from NO; the aid from Cuba and Venezuela that was refused; etc., ad infinitum. If you store it far enough away, those poor folks can’t get it. Almost nothing has penetrated the barriers set up by FEMA. Could this all be caused by stupidity and incompetence, or is there something more sinister about the whole scenario?
19 September 2005-Mirrir UK
EXCLUSIVE: UP IN FLAMES
Tons of British aid donated to help Hurricane Katrina victims to be BURNED by Americans
From Ryan Parry, US Correspondent in New York
HUNDREDS of tons of British food aid shipped to America for starving Hurricane Katrina survivors is to be burned.
US red tape is stopping it from reaching hungry evacuees.
Instead tons of the badly needed Nato ration packs, the same as those eaten by British troops in Iraq, has been condemned as unfit for human consumption.
And unless the bureaucratic mess is cleared up soon it could be sent for incineration.
One British aid worker last night called the move “sickening senselessness” and said furious colleagues were “spitting blood”.
The food, which cost British taxpayers millions, is sitting idle in a huge warehouse after the Food and Drug Agency recalled it when it had already left to be distributed.
Scores of lorries headed back to a warehouse in Little Rock, Arkansas, to dump it at an FDA incineration plant.
The Ministry of Defence in London said last night that 400,000 operational ration packs had been shipped to the US.
But officials blamed the US Department of Agriculture, which impounded the shipment under regulations relating to the import and export of meat.
The aid worker, who would not be named, said: “This is the most appalling act of sickening senselessness while people starve.
“The FDA has recalled aid from Britain because it has been condemned as unfit for human consumption, despite the fact that these are Nato approved rations of exactly the same type fed to British soldiers in Iraq.
“Under Nato, American soldiers are also entitled to eat such rations, yet the starving of the American South will see them go up in smoke because of FDA red tape madness.”
The worker added: “There will be a cloud of smoke above Little Rock soon – of burned food, of anger and of shame that the world’s richest nation couldn’t organise a p**s up in a brewery and lets Americans starve while they arrogantly observe petty regulations.
“Everyone is revolted by the chaotic shambles the US is making of this crisis. Guys from Unicef are walking around spitting blood.
“This is utter madness. People have worked their socks off to get food into the region.
“It is perfectly good Nato approved food of the type British servicemen have. Yet the FDA are saying that because there is a meat content and it has come from Britain it must be destroyed.
“If they are trying to argue there is a BSE reason then that is ludicrously out of date. There is more BSE in the States than there ever was in Britain and UK meat has been safe for years.”
The Ministry of Defence said: “We understand there was a glitch and these packs have been impounded by the US Department of Agriculture under regulations relating to the import and export of meat.
“The situation is changing all the time and at our last meeting on Friday we were told progress was being made in relation to the release of these packs. The Americans certainly haven’t indicated to us that there are any more problems and they haven’t asked us to take them back.”
Food from Spain and Italy is also being held because it fails to meet US standards and has been judged unfit for human consumption.
And Israeli relief agencies are furious that thousands of gallons of pear juice are to be destroyed because it has been judged unfit.
The FDA said: “We did inspect some MREs (meals ready to eat) on September 13. They are the only MREs we looked at. There were 70 huge pallets of vegetarian MREs.
“They were from a foreign nation. We inspected them and then released them for distribution.”
This is nothing new for the Bush crowd. We had an ice fiasco during hurricane Isabel. Same stupidity repeated during every major storm.
During Isabel FEMA gave out free generators to the wealthy while those really in need, like the sick & elderly went without.
By the way FEMA was late showing up for Isabel too & bungled the entire job. I can’t even imagine how bad it must be with Katrina.
Why does Chertoff still have a job & why doesn’t Bush do the universe a favor & resign?
Shouldn’t we be able to invoke a medical inquiry into Bush’s fitness for command? A think that a test for retardation is in order, no offense intended to the mentally challenged.
“they’re not loyal party members” said the nazi/rethuglican final solution expert, as he twirled his death skull and crossed bones ring.
My imagined world…but is it?
Somewhere between the British MREs being disallowed and the 1500 mile away storage of ice and water I come to a sad conclusion. FEMA is not just stupid. The people of NO are dilebritley cut off! It would appear that ‘someone’ wants to leave them to die. Discrasefull.
The failure of getting food from many and varied sources to the people in the Gulf States hit by Hurricane Katrina, is NOT due to incompetence but by design of a murderous Illuminati who has stated their goal to eliminate 98% of world population. See also the manipulation of Hurricane Katrina by scaler waves and weather control. This most recent assault on humanity may be the last straw to awaking people to the “Beast” that really is in our midst. Yes, evil does exist, folks; PLEASE wake up NOW.
In the power of God within us,
Taylor Hunt