Drivers With Truckloads Of Ice, Water Wait To Help Hurricane Victims
POSTED: 8:45 am CDT October 12, 2005
UPDATED: 9:45 am CDT October
FORT WORTH, Texas — Some observers say a Federal Emergency Management Agency fiasco is sitting at the Texas Motor Speedway in far north Fort Worth.
Truckloads of ice and water, which were supposed to be delivered to cities hit by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, are going nowhere.
The trucks and their drivers have been stuck at the TMS for well over a week from as far away as Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.
“If I’m here any longer, I’ll be able to vote in this state,” one driver said.
“FEMA is so disorganized that it’s buying ice, trucking it all over the country and placing it as far as possible from the people who could use it,” Sen. Susan Collins (R) Maine said.
Nationwide, FEMA is paying to store 65 million pounds of excess ice.
The agency said it is cheaper to store the overage than to buy new ice later.