4/3/08 Orlando Sentinel: FEMA puts post-hurricane freebies on ice FEMA puts post-hurricane freebies on ice

The federal agency says it will focus on basics — and won’t give out generators, either, except in medical emergencies.

Anson Chucci grabs ice to be loaded into a car as residents lined up for food, water and ice after Hurricane Frances in 2004. (BARBARA V. PEREZ, ORLANDO SENTINEL / September 7, 2004)

Ken Kaye |South Florida Sun-Sentinel

April 3, 2008

Don’t expect to receive free ice from the federal government in the aftermath of a hurricane.

That was the first big announcement, made by R. David Paulison, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, on Wednesday during the weeklong National Hurricane Conference in Orlando.

In addition to ice, FEMA no longer will provide free generators unless needed for medical emergencies, Paulison said.

“I just don’t think that’s one of FEMA’s jobs,” he said. “We’re going to focus on the basic needs of people, and that’s food and water.” Don’t count on the state providing much ice, either. It’s low on the critical-needs list, behind medical supplies, water, food, shelter and emergency fuel, state Emergency Management Director Craig Fugate said Wednesday.

Fugate said if stores such as Wal-Mart or Publix are open after a storm, residents likely would have to buy their bags of ice.

“We’re still buying ice, but we’re buying a lot less of it,” he said. “Ice is not going to be our priority.”

Ben Smilowitz, executive director of the Disaster Accountability Project, a government-watchdog group based in Connecticut, immediately objected, saying storm-hit residents sorely need ice if left powerless.

As a former site manager for a Red Cross service center in Gulfport, Miss., he said ice was particularly in demand after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast.

Reaction was mixed from Central Florida officials.

“It’s going to be a huge issue,” said Deltona Deputy Fire Chief Robert Rogers, who saw thousands of residents wait in long lines at a park for ice after hurricanes Charley and Frances in 2004. “It has been a huge demand in the past, and I don’t know how we’re going to fill it.”

Rogers said he is not sure local governments can afford to start providing their own ice.

Orlando officials said the city handed out ice to its residents without FEMA’s help after Charley. A spokeswoman said the city still has contracts with ice suppliers and might again supply residents with ice. But the city agrees with FEMA’s position.

“Ice is considered a luxury,” spokeswoman Heather Allebaugh said. “Food, water and shelter are the priorities.”

Jerry Smith, emergency-management director inLake County, said few people truly need ice, with the exception of some seniors who use it to keep medications cool.

“The need for that is extremely low,” Smith said. “Ice isn’t as needed as we once thought, the same way we once thought the Earth was flat and now we know it’s round. We’ve learned.”

Volusia County Chairman Frank Bruno disagreed.

“Absolutely, it’s one of the essential needs,” Bruno said. “It just seems irresponsible for FEMA to even be coming out with a statement like that, especially after what this country has been through.”

Orange County’s emergency-management director said it will only truly hurt if FEMA stops reimbursing for ice and generator costs later on and makes local governments absorb that themselves.

Otherwise, the decision to stop supplying ice might help local emergency response, said Emergency Manager Preston Cook. Orange provides its own ice and generators right after an emergency, and it might be good to remove a big ice-buying competitor such as FEMA from the mix.

“It’s one of the big customers out of the way,” Cook said, adding that it could mean not only lower prices but speedier deliveries. “It actually helps us a little bit.”

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel is a Tribune Publishing newspaper. Denise-Marie Balona, David Damron, Mark Schlueb and Adrian Uribarri of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report.