Never-delivered ice is lesson for congressmen

[struggle4progress]

Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON - A truck driver who said he was paid more than $15,000 to deliver 40,000 pounds of ice that never got to hurricane victims came to Capitol Hill yesterday to try to keep it from happening again.

"For me to come here today was to let you know something needs to be done with this," Paul Mullinax said after testifying before the Senate Democratic Policy Committee on Gulf reconstruction problems. <snip>

Mullinax picked up the ice in Newburgh, N.Y., and was told to take it to a storage facility in Carthage, Mo. The Army Corps of Engineers then had him drive it to Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala., where he waited for 12 days before being told to take it back north to a freezer in Gloucester, Mass.

A frustrated Mullinax even offered IAP Worldwide Services, the company the Federal Emergency Management Agency contracted to deliver ice, $1,500 for the load so he could personally deliver it to Mississippi hurricane victims. The offer was declined, Mullinax said. <snip>

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php?page=national&story_id=101805b1_fema_ice

[CottonBear]

1. Damn. I'm speechless, Thank you Mr. Mullinax. n/t

[Kagemusha]

2. Brown said he wanted FEMA out of the ice biz.

See, gotta get rid of government distorting hurricane ravaged markets by providing ice for free.

[BikeWriter]

3. That really sucks!