Tried to Get them Out of the Ice Business

Poor, poor clueless bastard

BROWN: Can I address ice before you move on, do you mind?

JEFFERSON: Go ahead.

BROWN: I just want to state publicly that ice was one of those commodities that I feebly attempted to get FEMA out of the business of ice, because ice was originally intended to be only a life-saving commodity for baby formula, medications for hospitals and that sort of thing. And ice is one of those commodities that the demand for has just grown and grown and grown.

And so while I have tried to limit something, I failed miserably in that regard.

(UNKNOWN): Would the gentleman yield?

BROWN: Everybody wants ice.

JEFFERSON: Yes, I yield.

(UNKNOWN): Because I think this is really interesting, Mr. Brown.

Have you ever been through a hurricane?

BROWN: No, but I’ve been through disasters where I haven’t had power for a long time and I know that the refrigerators go on the blink and food spoils, et cetera. But I don’t think that’s a federal government responsibility to provide ice to keep my hamburger meat in my freezer or refrigerator fresh.

(UNKNOWN): Well, if it goes bad and, as you said, people should — you first said just a little while ago, people should be prepared to feed themselves for two or three days…

BROWN: With nonperishable…

(UNKNOWN): … if I may.

So now you’re saying, OK, they’re trying to feed themselves for two or three days. We have a low-cost alternative to feeding them; we should just give them a couple bags of ice to keep that stuff from going rotten.

BROWN: No, because they can’t cook it.

(UNKNOWN): Now you’re saying you shouldn’t do that.

But let me follow up.

What else do they do with the ice, Mr. Brown?

BROWN: Pardon?

(UNKNOWN): What else do they do with the ice?

BROWN: I assume…

(UNKNOWN): Because I think we have a serious disconnect and I think I’m really beginning to realize why you were removed from this job.

What else was that ice used for?

BROWN: Ice should be used for life saving, to keep baby formula fresh and for medications. And I think that’s what it should be used for.
(UNKNOWN): How about keeping the dead corpses from rotting in the…

BROWN: Because you can’t use it to keep…

(UNKNOWN): … sun?
BROWN: … hamburger meat because you can’t cook the hamburger meat. That’s why we say, have provisions for two or three days of nonperishable items.

And I think it’s wrong for the federal government to be in the ice business, providing ice so I can keep my beer and Diet Coke cool.
(UNKNOWN): How about the need to keep bodies from rotting in the sun?

Had you visited Hancock County, which you didn’t, you would have met a gentleman named Edmund Faise (ph). He was given the grisly task of trying to preserve the bodies. They were stacked up at his local mortuary. He had no power. And he literally came to me, tears in his eyes and said, You have got to find me a freezer truck because these bodies are rotting in my driveway.

BROWN: And we had refridge (ph) trucks available throughout the region to store…

(UNKNOWN): Two days later.

BROWN: … bodies.

(UNKNOWN): Two days later, sir.

Again, Mr. Brown, the more I listen to you, I’m thinking you’re probably a great attorney, but you were way over your head in your capacity at FEMA.

JEFFERSON: I reclaim my time for a moment here.

The ice is also used not for the dead, but to keep people from dying. In nursing homes, one of the major reasons that old people just suffered and died is because there was no ice, there was no way for them to refresh themselves and the heat was suffocating.

It’s awfully hot down there, as you know, and it just wasn’t there. And for other people who are out of the sun all day, the Superdome was hot (inaudible) people came outside, and it was still hot there.

Absolute critical need for people to stay alive as much as it was for anything else. And so it wasn’t a luxury to preserve hamburger meat. It was really a necessity to preserve life.

Dumb as a rock. Complaining about people wanting cool diet coke and beer while the Congressmen are talking about dead and dying people.