Kris Osborn: Waiting in line for ice
 |
Kris Osborn
Story Tools
SPECIAL REPORT
|
|
|
NEWPORT NEWS, Virginia (CNN) -- Electrical workers on Sunday continued to work to restore power to 1.8 million customers in seven mid-Atlantic states and the District of Columbia who were still in the dark from last week's Hurricane Isabel.
Residents of Newport News, Virginia, broke curfew Sunday morning to wait in line at a grocery store that was handing out free bags of ice for people to use to keep their food from spoiling.
CNN's Kris Osborn is there and filed the following report:
OSBORN: As of earlier this morning, emergency officials at the emergency operations center say at least 1 million homes around the state of Virginia are still without power. It is a situation that -- particularly for many people waiting here in line to pick up ice -- is increasingly frustrating. This a private store called Harris-Teeter and all morning long -- in fact since before the 7 a.m. curfew lifted -- people were lining up here seeking to get ice. Hoping to preserve their food.
Reaction among them has been mixed, some having a sense of humor, laughing, joking, singing songs, saying, "I just want to be able to watch football, because that's the essentials along with ice and gas."
Others, however, have been extremely frustrated asking, "Why is a private store the place that we're getting ice, and not the federal government?"
We spoke with Newport News Mayor Joe Frank, who has been in touch with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Frank called the situation frustrating as well. He told us, "Emergency plans are that FEMA is to supply food and water, we just haven't seen it yet." Frank said FEMA has told him they are working on it.
Bob Spieldenner, with the state emergency operations center, says the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers -- as part of the FEMA team -- is currently involved in bringing large amounts of water, trailer trucks of both water and ice to a central location at which point distribution centers will then send it out to regional areas.
