Surplus Katrina ice another FEMA meltdown

The Federal Emergency Management Agency bought too much ice to assist Hurricane Katrina victims, and millions of dollars worth that has been stored for nearly two years is now being melted and poured down the drain.

Shortly after purchasing the ice for Katrina relief efforts in August 2005, FEMA officials discovered the agency had more ice than it could use and ordered the extra shipments be delivered to freezers nationwide.

The bagged ice, some of which was bought from Maine companies, has been stored at 22 facilities across the nation, including one in Portland, at a cost in excess of $12.5 million.

While ice has no shelf life, FEMA officials decided that after nearly two years it was no longer safe for human use and decided to melt it.

“Among other deficiencies, Hurricane Katrina helped expose a poor logistics system at FEMA that resulted in 250 truckloads of excess ice being sent to Maine, thousands of miles from the Gulf Coast where it was needed, costing taxpayers nearly $274,000,” U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said Wednesday. “More troubling is that the ice in Maine was just the tip of the iceberg since FEMA also stored additional ice all over the country only to dispose of it later, wasting millions of dollars.”

Collins is the ranking Republican on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, which continues to assess the nation’s abilities to respond to disasters such as Hurricane Katrina.

Among the facilities where FEMA-purchased ice was stockpiled was the AmeriCold Logistics warehouse in Portland.

The ice that was stored in Maine in September 2005 was moved months later, an AmeriCold representative said Wednesday, and there is no way to determine if it was used, put into storage for the last two years and later melted or used.

AmeriCold, which is headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., is liquidating any remaining FEMA ice in its other warehouses at no cost.

Collins said FEMA has changed its practices for buying ice since she raised the issue with agency officials during two hearings last year.

“Instead of purchasing a predetermined amount, FEMA now makes purchasing decisions based on need and has contracted with vendors to ensure that ice is available where it is needed, when it is needed,” she said.

The Associated Press and The Boston Globe contributed to this article.