[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 25, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: January 25, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
               THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EARTHQUAKE OF 1994

  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, thank you for the opportunity to speak to 
the Senate today about the southern California earthquake. Many of our 
colleagues here in the Senate have expressed concern, and I am very 
grateful. The people of California need us all right now to assist 
them, and most of them have never asked a thing from their Government.
  The 6.6-Richter scale earthquake that devastated parts of the Los 
Angeles region on January 17, impacted an area the size of Cleveland. 
The President has declared three counties--Los Angeles, Ventura, and 
Orange Counties--as disaster areas.
  I know many of you have been following the televised reports on the 
quake. Many of these moving pictures have focused really on a few 
scenes: the awful collapse of the Northridge apartment complex that 
killed 17 people, the crumbled bridges and the crowded shelters. It has 
been called the Los Angeles earthquake, but that is misleading. In 
addition to parts of L.A., this quake ripped through the cities of 
Santa Monica, San Fernando, Santa Clarita, Burbank, Glendale, Fillmore, 
Simi Valley, and Thousand Oaks as well as parts of Orange and Ventura 
Counties. Let me present you the larger picture of an entire region 
that has undergone horrendous havoc:
  The initial earthquake left 20,000 to 25,000 homeless. To date 57 
have died and 7,500 have been injured. The first day there were 70 
structure fires. About 25,000 structures have been damaged, 11,000 are 
uninhabitable.
  Initially, electric power was lost to more than 1.4 million 
customers, with damages to two electric generating plants and severe 
damage to two substations. Fifty-seven percent of the electric 
generating power of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power was 
down, affecting 800,000 customers.
  About 20,000 water customers were without service. A water aqueduct 
was broken in San Fernando Valley, with five major breaks in the area's 
water system. About 20,000 natural gas customers were without service.
  The Los Angeles Unified School System shut down, sending 800,000 
students home; 150 school are damaged.
  A Southern Pacific train derailed. Fifteen of 29 cars filled with 
sulfuric acid wrecked. One tankcar ruptured spilling 5,000 gallons of 
acid.
  A crude oil pipeline ruptured in Valencia with oil flowing into the 
Santa Clara River. An oil pipeline in Huntington and Laurel Canyons 
caught fire. Crude oil spill into Lake Castaic.
  Ventura County suffered the partial collapse of the residential 
Fillmore Hotel. Van Nuys Airport suffered damages including shattered 
windows in the control tower.
  Four hospitals were evacuated. A total of 18 hospitals had problems 
serious enough to force closing of floors or wings.
  Forty public buildings closed in Los Angeles County were closed due 
to damage. Another 20 State buildings were closed.
  By week's end, the Red Cross and Salvation Army had established 41 
shelters, plus five National Guard tent sites, housing thousands of 
people. In addition, the city of Los Angeles set up temporary shelters 
in 13 parks.
  Mr. President, when I say this tragedy is continuing; it is no 
rhetorical exaggeration. Aftershocks Sunday morning forced the 
evacuation of 83 people at the San Fernando High School shelter into 
nearby tents. The area has suffered more than 1,500 aftershocks, 
including two that exceeded 5.0 on the Richter scale.
  This morning the area is under a flash flood watch by the National 
Weather Service. Mud and debris flows from the nearby hillsides burned 
in last fall's firestorms are possible.
  Electrical power was restored to everyone only yesterday. There are 
still 5,000 without water, and more than 200,000 water customers still 
have to boil their water because of damaged filtration systems.
  All but 50 schools will reopen today, still leaving 40,000 students 
out of class. About 500 Los Angeles classrooms are unusable, according 
to Education Secretary Riley.
  At least nine Federal-aid highways were damaged, including 12 
bridges. Portions of the Santa Monica Freeway--the busiest highway in 
the world with about 200,000 cars a day--was severely damaged, 
including the collapse of two bridges. Interstate 5, the Golden Gate 
Freeway, the major north-south artery for the Los Angeles basin 
suffered major damage at three intersections. About 100,000 commuters 
face tortuous delays. Even with using all available bus and HOV lane 
options, Caltrans says the affected routes could handle only half the 
normal volume of traffic. All total, 37 miles of highway are unusable.
  One piece of good news from the highway scene is that seismic 
retrofit works. No graphic example exists better than the span of 
Interstate 10 at Venice-La Cienega. The east and west bound lanes are 
held up by separate bridges. The span that had seismic protection 
stood. The lanes where this protection had not yet been retrofitted 
collapsed.
  We need to do more to fix our bridges to withstand earthquakes. That 
was the intent of Congress when it passed the Intermodal Surface 
Transportation and Efficiency Act, but the way it was interpreted, it 
is not possible to use Federal bridge funds for seismic upgrade unless 
the bridge is structurally deficient in other ways. My legislation in 
committee this week will be on the Senate floor soon.
  Meanwhile, the economic tremors from this devastation are rippling 
throughout southern California.
  The human toll, in addition to the casualties, is equally astounding. 
There have been more than 100,000 disaster aid applications to date and 
James Lee Witt, the Director of the Federal Emergency Management 
Agency, has predicted his Agency could receive 300,000 applications. By 
comparison, 5 days after the Midwest floods, FEMA received 2,463 
requests for aid.
  Since the quake my California staff has pitched in at the disaster 
centers and seen the human side of this disaster. They have helped 
serve meals; helped distribute food, diapers and clothing; and 
translated for non-English speaking victims making their applications. 
My staff here in Washington is also volunteering at the FEMA 
teleregistration phone banks.
  They heard from a Santa Clarita man, living in his business after his 
home was destroyed by last fall's fire storms. Now, the earthquake 
destroyed his business. Lightening did strike twice for his hard 
working man.
  A 28-year-old single mother of three was just getting by working at a 
fast-food restaurant and living at a residential hotel in Ventura 
County. The quake damaged the hotel, destroying what possessions she 
had. There was the Sherman Oaks woman escaping with her cat and an 
armload of clothes. And I will never forget the homes that I saw where 
precious possessions of families were strewn on the floor--broken--with 
TV's toppled and refrigerators and dreams too.
  As I visited Granada Hills, I talked with some young children who 
were really scared. One told me he barely saved his cat from a falling 
ladder. He looked at me and asked when he would be in school. Would 
this be fixed? He was about 11 years old, and he did not have even a 
little smile. I told him we would fix it--and we must, just as we did 
for Hurricane Andrew, the Midwest floods and the Loma Prieta 
earthquake.
  The President tonight will talk to the Nation about the State of the 
Union. He will present this week a supplemental appropriations that 
will help California. He will ask for emergency spending for this 
measure, as Presidents have done before. Since the enactment of the 
1990 Budget Act, there have been four bills including emergency 
designation for appropriations totaling $8.6 billion in natural 
disaster assistance.
  I am very grateful to this President for his strong leadership.
  The President said in Los Angeles after surveying the scenes of 
destruction that ``this is a national problem.'' Emergencies are a 
national problem. California has gone through some very rough spots. In 
the good years we gave as a State more than we took. And I am convinced 
that the good years are on the way--with an economic strategy for this 
Nation that includes the information highway, conversion funds, 
environmental clean-up technologies and increased trade opportunities. 
I know that California will be back stronger than ever.
  In the meantime, we are fixing a bumpy road. I know if we all pull 
together we will smooth out the bumps and will add to our national 
economic recovery.
  Mr. President, I thank my colleague, Senator Feinstein. We are a team 
for California. It seems that we have had more than our share of 
emergency situations, but we will continue to work together to respond 
to the needs of the people.
  Many of our colleagues here have expressed concerns both to Senator 
Feinstein and to me, and I am very grateful to all of them. The people 
of California need it right now to assist them and, as Senator 
Feinstein has pointed out, many of them have never asked for Government 
help before.
  The 6.6 Richter scale earthquake that devastated parts of the Los 
Angeles region impacted an area the size of Cleveland. I say to my 
friends and colleagues that we have had very strong earthquakes before, 
but we have not ever had them in the center of such a heavily populated 
region. So all of the problems that we have had before from disasters, 
you need to multiply tenfold, twentyfold, thirtyfold, because of the 
density of the populations.
  Senator Feinstein talked about this earthquake and its magnitude, 
which was extraordinary. I read an article in the Los Angeles Times 
which said that the energy release in this earthquake was enough to 
launch 2 million NASA space shuttles--2 million NASA space shuttles. We 
are talking about an extraordinary amount of energy released and damage 
that followed.
  Many of you have seen the televised reports, and many of you have 
seen photos like this one of what happened to the freeway. It is 
important to note that these freeways that are damaged, including I-5 
and Interstate 10, are extremely heavily traveled freeways. Interstate 
10 is traveled by maybe as much as 300,000 cars a day, Mr. President. 
I-5 is the lifeline from northern California to southern California. I 
think it is important to note that in southern California the freeways 
are our economic and our personal lifeline. That is why we are so very 
grateful to this administration and to our colleagues for showing their 
concern and moving quickly forward, in many cases waiving the laws such 
as the $100 million cap per State and also certainly the 25 percent 
match. We are very, very grateful. Instead of taking the time to repeat 
the names Senator Feinstein put out there, let me just say that I add 
my thanks to those very same people.
  We know that regarding the homelessness, at first they said 2,000, 
but I knew that was wrong. I said to the President when he came out 
last Wednesday, ``Mr. President, it is 10 times as much,'' and it is, 
it is about 25,000 homeless. At one time, 1 million customers, Mr. 
President, had no electricity. We still have thousands of homes without 
water and electricity, and that is a public health nightmare.
  I ask unanimous consent that my entire statement be included in the 
Record, and I will continue to summarize from it.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. President, I think when you hear us tell these personal stories, 
it really brings it home. When the President came out on Wednesday, he 
did a walking tour, and I went off, as did Senator Feinstein, on my own 
to meet with the people. We went into homes and I saw refrigerators 
toppled on the floor and television sets and all of the people's dreams 
and possessions just shattered. They were grateful that they had their 
lives, but they need to rebuild. The Small Business Administration, and 
Erskine Bowles was out, who is our Director of the SBA, and he was most 
helpful.
  We are going to rebuild. I remember this young man who said to me, 
``Senator, when can I go to school? I want to go back to school.'' Then 
he said, ``I saved my cat. The ladder was going to fall on my cat, and 
I saved my cat. When are you going to fix this, and when are we going 
to go back to school?'' What you saw among the children always is the 
trauma, because they need to have their normal life returned, and we 
need to move quickly. Secretary Riley flew out. He is working with the 
State officials to get schools reopened. These children need us right 
now, Mr. President. If they have a sense of normalcy, I think that we 
can move beyond this crisis.
  One piece of good news from the highway scene is that seismic 
retrofit works. We can look at, for example, the span of Interstate 10 
at Venice-La Cienega. The east and westbound lanes are held up by 
separate bridges. The span that had seismic protection stood. The lanes 
where this protection had not been retrofitted collapsed. So it is very 
important that we continue the seismic retrofit.
  I must quickly add here that we need to fix many, many bridges. There 
are about 300 bridges now that need fixing, and they cannot, because of 
a technicality in the law, apply for seismic retrofit. In the Public 
Works Committee on Thursday, we hope to make this fix, and that would 
enable these bridges to be retrofitted.
  Let me say that my staff has joined with Senator Feinstein's staff. 
They are feeding people. They, in many cases, recruited their friends; 
they recruited their spouses. They are working hard. They are working 
as interpreters.
  We are hearing stories, for example, of a Santa Clarita man who had 
his business destroyed in last fall's firestorms and now the earthquake 
destroyed his home. This is a case where lightning struck twice for 
this gentleman.
  We have stories like this on and on. Of course, that is what it is 
all about--responding to these stories, restoring a sense that people 
are in control of their destiny.
  I know that the State of California will work very cooperatively with 
us. I have never seen such bipartisanship in the congressional 
delegation in the State. We have many Republicans representing the area 
and many Democrats. We see people pulling together.
  So, I am very much an optimist in the long run for California. We 
already know we are pulling out of this recession. As we look at the 
strategy of this administration, which includes the information highway 
and economic conversion funds and environmental cleanup technologies, 
increased trade opportunities, I know that California will be back 
stronger than ever.
  But, in the meantime, we have this bumpy road. I know, Mr. President, 
with your help and the help of everyone who has expressed it thus far, 
we can pull together, we can smooth out the bumps in the road, and then 
California will add to this Nation's economic recovery.
  I thank you very much for your courtesy, Mr. President.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the order previously entered, the 
Senator from Texas [Mr. Gramm] is to be recognized for not to exceed 8 
minutes.
  Mr. GRAMM. Mr. President, I would like to say to the Presiding 
Officer that when I asked for this time, I assumed it would come at the 
beginning of the session after lunch. I apologize to our distinguished 
President pro tempore for interrupting his lunch.

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