FEMA says no more ICE or GENERATORS

[Hurritrax]

What's everyones take on this? Ice is nice when you don't have electricity, but I agree that it is a "luxury" and not a basic need like food, water, and shelter. As far as generators go, FEMA had no business paying for generators. Just my two cents.

If people would only start to take care of themselves instead of relying on the gov. to do it, we'd be a much better country!

Now I agree that people that can't take care of themselves should be looked after. And people whose homes are completely destroyed in a storm need as much help as they can get. I'm speaking of the citizens out there that know a hurricane is coming, can afford to stock up on food, water, and supplies, ignore all instructions to prepare, and then are the first in line to get relief from FEMA. Sorry about the rant...just a little venting.

Have you started your preparations for this hurricane season? Why not start this weekend? Buy a little bit here and there and you'll be stocked and ready by June 1. Better yet, ask your family, friends, and neighbors if they've started stocking their emergency/hurricane supplies. If they haven't, encourage them to do so!

[HURAKAN]

If a hurricane hits in the dog days of summer, generators should be provided to the elderly and kids.

Ice is needed a lot because if you have foods like meat in your refrigerator, you don't want it to rot before you can use it. The US has enough money to provide for all of these.

People should also learn to prepare better and not wait for the government to provide everything.

[DanKellFla]

I agree with you Hurritrax. Generator give-aways are a bit over the top. It gives an incentive to wait for a storm so FEMA will buy you a generator. Although, I think the Ice giveaways are reasonable. Just distribute it along with food and water for the people who need it. Like you, it annoys me that people capable of preparing for a storm refuse to do so year after year. If you have enough money for a BMW payment, you can spare a few bucks for water and canned food. Basic preparation is cheap and easy. In South Florida it takes about 3 days for the chaos to begin to recede. In about 5 days the place is mostly back to normal. It isn't all that hard to keep enough food in your house for 3 days.

[Aquawind]

Yeah I know it's not fun without but...These are a luxury items and only need to be provided for medical needs imo. We have wasted millions on frozen water and Generators should not be given away period. Take care of yourselves and take some responsibilty.

http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=37842

[Ed Mahmoud]

We prepared for Hurricane Rita by filling quite a few coolers just before the storm was supposed to hit with food and blue freezer things, and powdered milk, and packed the freezer full, as the freezer is built a lot like an insulated cooler, except your average beer cooler doesn't have a compressor.


Also a lot of canned foods.


I don't know how much help ice a day or three after the power goes out will do for keeping food fresh.

I guess if you were smart enough to load up coolers, more ice after 3 days would keep the food cold another couple of days, but you'd need a lot of coolers to keep more than a few days worth of food anyway.

[Dionne]

We were not prepared for Katrina. Things have changed.

We have a nice new generator and keep fuel with stabil. Cash on hand. Chainsaw, batteries, flashlights, long shelf life foods, bottled water, medic bag. Evac plans for several directions. We keep what we call "run bags" in the event of a hasty evac.

Anyone that experienced the wrath of Katrina and does not have a plan should develop one.

I could say a lot about FEMA, but my language would prolly get me banned again.

[brunota2003]

If the person is able to be prepared, they should be. Do not wait for the government to get to you, take care of yourself! People complain about the response of the gov't in the wake of Katrina...O.K., so maybe they were a little slow, but look at the magnitude of the impact!

You expect that every National Guard person was going to be there instantly? No. They have to clear roads, wait for the water to recede before they can even get to some places, and take care of everyone else while in the process of doing that. A two-person 72 hour emergency kit can be purchased for $100, and would help tremendously in the wake of a disaster. I could freaking buy that, and all I do is ref soccer games!

http://beprepared.com/

There is a good site for preparedness.

Here is their 72 hour, two-person survival kit:
http://beprepared.com/product.asp_Q_pn_ ... ency%20Kit

My parents and I use that site for a lot of our emergency preparedness stuff. They have dehydrated foods, water, survival kits, communication stuff, personal hygiene stuff, shelters, and a bunch of other items. I believe we have 5 days worth of supplies running around the house in our Hurricane kit, along with a generator, gas, and I have a new LCD tv (Energy Star one) that will be used when the power goes out. We have one water purifier bottle per person, and plenty of water.

I even have recently made myself a go bag (emergency, grab and run bag) that has roughly 72 hours worth of supplies in it. The only thing missing is water, because I have not bought any yet. I have light, matches, food bars, clothes, a car kit, and some various other items in it.

There is no excuse for most people to not be prepared. If a 17 year old senior can do it, so can you.

Prepare for the worse, hope for the best, and always plan for a Hurricane one or two Category's above what is forecast to make landfall.

[elliotj]

As I recall in New Orleans, returning on Sept. 27, all the FEMA ice was located in Kenner, which had power. That was silly. I tried to find ice in NO and it was gone very early from Harrahs mostly by police. FEMA did not do such a good job on that. I would go to Metairie gas stations to get ice to keep my dinner which I would grill. Generators did not matter to me but finding ice did.

[olddude]

I have no problem with FEMA curtailing giving out generators but ice is nice to have. I still recall in the last few storms to hit the Keys trucks crusing the nieghborhood giving ice out. As for generators there is very little reason for not having one, at least down here. A local radio station has a show that you can buy, sell or trade on and generators are a frequent item for as little as $100.00. No excuse not to own one if you live in the Keys.

[sunny]

As I recall in New Orleans, returning on Sept. 27, all the FEMA ice was located in Kenner, which had power.

There was ice avialable in Westwego at the Alario Center and in Gretna on Lafayette Street as well.

I agree though, generators are a bit over the top.

[bevgo]

I was as prepared for Katrina as possible and I already had a 5 day supply of water, food and ice but in my area power was out MUCH longer than 5 days and there were NO stores open to resupply. I can understand no generators but with the summer heat ice can save lives. I got out of here on day 3 when the roads would allow escape but returned 2 wks later with a car full of food and other supplies. We had power and could cook and store food just could not find a place to buy food. If we could have gotten gas we could have driven out of the area but there was not a gas station open for a long while either. It was just bad. I did get in a few lines for stuff but mostly it was to supply my elderly patients that had no means of getting anything because their car was destroyed or family/friends that usually helped them with transport was GONE. I try to be self sufficient but there are many that DO NOT have the means to be prepared or to leave.

[Category 5]

I agree people need to learn to prepare their own homes and families, but there are some out there who cannot afford it and have no means of preparing. Basically they're hung out to dry.... again.

[CrazyC83]

It's called preparing for the worst and taking responsibility. You shouldn't have to wait for FEMA to come to the rescue. I agree ice should be provided (even if by state, county or municipal authorities and not FEMA), but giving away generators are WAY too expensive.

As for the 72 hours? I'd be prepared for 7 days at least, especially if in a more rural area.

[MGC]

Supplies such as ice, water and food were available after Katrina by Thursday (Katrina hit Monday). There were distribution centers set up all along the coast. In Pass Christian, you could pick up your food ect at the Wal Mart parking lot. You would just drive through and Army National Guard folks would load what you needed into your car. You just drove from station to station. We would hit the FEMA supply site every couple of days. Water was the major issue, as the city drinking water was not certified safe for human consumption till Janurary. We went through a ton of bottled water.....MGC

[Dionne]

Supplies such as ice, water and food were available after Katrina by Thursday (Katrina hit Monday). There were distribution centers set up all along the coast. In Pass Christian, you could pick up your food ect at the Wal Mart parking lot. You would just drive through and Army National Guard folks would load what you needed into your car. You just drove from station to station. We would hit the FEMA supply site every couple of days. Water was the major issue, as the city drinking water was not certified safe for human consumption till Janurary. We went through a ton of bottled water.....MGC

Like you have mentioned......"all along the coast".......the inland counties did not have the same experience. Copiah county, the northern most declared disaster county was treated like a red headed step child. Our entire infrastructure went down. The National Guard never arrived. The Red Cross never arrived. Fema never arrived. We were on our own. And I know we were not the only ones. I've heard of numerous small inland communities with similar experiences after landfall. The first people to arrive here were several lineman crews from Kentucky. The first thing they did was get power back to our wells to fill our water towers. We treated them like kings.

[yzerfan]

Considering it's often 85F or more in the days after a hurricane when power's still down, ice is a very useful thing to have to keep the humans (including kids and fragile elderly) cool as well as any perishables cold.

[andrewsmith1]

I just moved into a new home a couple of weeks ago. We are on well water and the closest grocery store is 15 miles away. Hopefully the gas station a couple of miles away has a generator for the pumps. I have a generator so I should be able to pump water, run the fridge and a few lights and fans as well as keep basic cirulation running on the aquariums. We are slowly stocking up on canned goods and will make sure we have plenty of food for the dogs and cats. I still need to get my chainsaw chains sharpened up.

My biggest concern will be finding gas if the local station runs out or can't power the pumps. My utilities are all underground so hopefully that will minimize the length of the outage if I do lose power.

[Dionne]

You can purchase and store gasoline. I do it every hurricane season now. (Since Katrina) The trick is to use Stabil.....it is a fuel stabilizer. I use 5 gallon plastic jugs and add the Stabil, then store them at our shop in our metal cabinets that are used to hold all petroleum products. When the threat of hurricane season passes we use the fuel in work trucks.

[Stormtrack]

I have no intention of using a generator, government supplied or not, due to safety and practicality concerns. A family died after Rita from carbon monoxide poisoning I belive in or near Beaumont, Tx from a generator. You, of course have to leave your windows open, unless you're rich and can afford a setup which supplies your whole house, AC and all. I'm pretty sure I can get along without AC as i did all the time I was growing up in Texas. Back then in the 50's and 60's, even the schools didn't have air conditioning. There's also a good chance that you would buy a generator and then never use it. I have lived in a house 15 miles from the GOM for over 30 years and have never had the power out for more than a few hours. I would like to be able to have access to ice though, and wouldn't mind paying for it if the price isn't too exhorbitant. I intend to use battery operated fans to be able to cool off, not the little small personal type but the "O2 Cool" brand with 10-inch blade that you can get in places like Walmart and Lowe's (It puts out more air than you would expect). I keep a large supply of d-cells on hand (It takes 8 per fan and they last for about 72 hours of run time.

[HollynLA]

I have no intention of using a generator, government supplied or not, due to safety and practicality concerns. A family died after Rita from carbon monoxide poisoning I belive in or near Beaumont, Tx from a generator. You, of course have to leave your windows open, unless you're rich and can afford a setup which supplies your whole house, AC and all. I'm pretty sure I can get along without AC as i did all the time I was growing up in Texas. Back then in the 50's and 60's, even the schools didn't have air conditioning. There's also a good chance that you would buy a generator and then never use it. I have lived in a house 15 miles from the GOM for over 30 years and have never had the power out for more than a few hours. I would like to be able to have access to ice though, and wouldn't mind paying for it if the price isn't too exhorbitant. I intend to use battery operated fans to be able to cool off, not the little small personal type but the "O2 Cool" brand with 10-inch blade that you can get in places like Walmart and Lowe's (It puts out more air than you would expect). I keep a large supply of d-cells on hand (It takes 8 per fan and they last for about 72 hours of run time.

You should NEVER run a generator indoors, that's why that family died. The generator should be outside and you use extension chords to plug in things like the fridge, window unit a/c, fan, etc. Have you ever been stuck in your house for days in August heat with no power or a/c? If you have, you'd definitely want the generator. The battery operated fan will just blow the hot air at you faster.