FEMA Spending $750 MILLION dollars a day? [Updated]

From the Associated Press Link

The congressional official who relayed word of Bush's decision did so on condition of anonymity because it was not clear when the formal announcement would be made.

Congress approved a $10.5 billion first installment in relief funding last week. A second congressional official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Federal Emergency Management Administration, was spending about $750 million a day and would soon need additional funds.

What, pray tell, are they spending it on?  I know it's not Food, Water, Beds, Buses, Heavy Equipment, Transports, Aircraft, and Pop-Tarts!? (Cherry ones are Chertoff's fave)

More below the fold...

How do we break this cost down?

Well, let's make some basic assumptions:

PERSONNEL-SUSTAINING SUPPLIES

500,000* Evacuees in various shelters (* - assumes people who evacuated on their own are self-supplied)

40,000 Soldiers

20,000 Relief Workers (My Swag at the number)

Assume they each will need 2 MREs and 1 liter of water per day...

Take the cost of one MRE:

What's that MRE cost?

Lt. Col. Karen Stoppello, who
orders MREs for Idaho Guard members, estimates MREs at $6.80 per meal. Much of the cost has to do with the specialized packaging that extends shelf life and blocks out contaminants, she said.

What about clean drinking water (those liter bottles they've been tossing all over)?

South Carolina Emergency Management Preparedness (WORD DOCUMENT)

Each Pallet is ~$568 and contains 840 1-liter bottles of water.

How about some Bedding and Tents?

Cots: $10
Tents: (20 Cots to a tent) $100
Most shelters are using permanent structures, but assume the troops and aid workers will need many, so call it 2000 tents.

Multiply it out:

560,000 x $7.00 = $3,920,000 for food

667 pallets of water @ $568/pallet = $378,667 for water

$5 Million for cots (One Time)

$200,000 for Tents (One Time)

$5,000,000 + $200,000 + $4,000,000 (approx) + $380,000 (approx) = $9,600,000 / day Equipment Needs

Fuel:
Helicopters:

Assume helos are running on Jet Fuel ($1.00/gallon), 24 hours running between teardowns. The Sikorsky HH-60 SeaHawk holds approx 1000 gallons of Jet Fuel for its turbines. Probably needs a refuel every 4 hours, so call it 6000 gallons of Jet Fuel per helicopter per day.

Estimate 150 helicopters engaged in rescue ops, so there's 900000 gallons of jet fuel needed per day.

Military Trucks:

Deuce and a half holds 40 gallons and probably burns through that in a day.

Estimate 500 deuces, so 2000 gallons at $3.00/gallon per day.

Boats and Gas Powered Trucks:

Assume power boats are travelling slowly and need one 5 gallon load of fuel per day... 400 boats would be 2000 gallons at $3.00/gallon per day

Gas Powered Trucks:

Assume trucks need a load of fuel once a day...30 gallons of fuel...and assume 1000 gas powered trucks: 30,000 gallons at $3.00/gallon.

I'm leaving maint. costs out as these costs are more indirect on a daily basis and hard to fully account for!

Fuel Costs: $6,000 (boats) + $90,000 (cars) + $6,000 + $900,000 (helos) = ~$1,000,000 per day

Where is the rest of this money going? That's BARELY $11 MILLION dollars per day!

What other costs are they billing that cost so much? Any thoughts? This ONLY leaves $740 Million Dollars per day to account for!

•  I am telling ya!!

  
  FEMA head NEED to be fired NOW. He is mishandling the money and continues to ruin everything!

  That $10 billion wil be gon and things will still be messy.

  by fugue on Tue Sep 06, 2005 at 02:11:12 PM PDT

•  Missed many expenses

  Photo-op travel and staging costs, oppo research on Governors and Mayors...

  by Elwood Dowd on Tue Sep 06, 2005 at 02:24:18 PM PDT

•  Wasn't DHS enough of a slush fund for them?

  If this is true, how much of that money is being funneled into offshore bank accounts for Brownie, Chertoff, Cheney, et. al?

  It is becoming clear that DHS was nothing but a huge money-laundering scheme, a slush fund that  was siphoning money from other departments and programs in the name of "terrorism."   Now we have FEMA possibly being the slush fund within a slush fund. How many layers are we talking about here?  Where is Deep Throat? Somebody get to the bottom of this!

  I cannot believe reporters  are not all over this administration. Blowing the lid off this uber-corrupt gang of thieves would be the story of the decade and is definitely Pulitzer material.  What, pray tell, are they waiting for? I have written dozens of letters to major newspapers across the country stating just this: get off your duffs and expose this administration for what it is.

  by grayscale on Tue Sep 06, 2005 at 02:28:45 PM PDT

  •  That's the "why" for this diary!

    I just stopped myself and said...WAIT a second..what is that being spent on!??

    by floundericiousMI on Tue Sep 06, 2005 at 02:33:10 PM PDT

•  We all know where it's going.

  Same place as DHS funds, Iraq, etc.

  by iconoclastic cat on Tue Sep 06, 2005 at 03:26:40 PM PDT