[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 39 (Wednesday, April 13, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 13, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                  HEAVY RAINS AND FLOODING IN MISSOURI

  Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I have a message that is unfortunately very 
untimely for the people of my State. I hope that I can call the 
attention of my colleagues to it.
  Yesterday, the administration proudly claimed that it cut through red 
tape and bureaucracy to get the Santa Monica Freeway open 2\1/2\ months 
ahead of schedule. We congratulate the bureaucracy. We are glad for the 
people of Santa Monica, and we are delighted to hear that this is a new 
way of reinventing Government.
  Unfortunately, for people that live in the valleys of the State of 
Missouri along the river bottoms, Government has been reinvented in the 
wrong way. I have told this body several times that if the 
administration continues to delay the replacement of levees blown out 
in the disastrous floods of 1993, rising waters in 1994 are going to 
bring havoc, disruption, and loss to our State, our families, our 
businesses, and our communities.
  The long-predicted rains have come; they hit heavily over this 
weekend. Serious flooding has occurred. I ask how long we are going to 
continue seeing the Corps of Engineers contradict, delay, and dawdle 
through the responsibility of repairing the levees.
  Yesterday I was in central Missouri. I stood on the road and looked 
at the community of Loutre, Loutre Market. It is flooding. This is an 
area that is flooding this year because the Corps of Engineers has 
refused to carry out its responsibility and rebuild the levees that 
protect it. This is the levee just upstream. Notice the hole. That is 
where the water came through. The water has not gone over the top of 
the levee. The water came through where the levee has been left open.
  What does this do to the communities? Schools are closed in the area. 
People cannot get to work. This is Highway 94 and Highway 100 in 
Missouri. It is between Hermann and Loutre and New Florence, MO. We 
spent $1.7 million repairing this stretch. Highway equipment is out in 
the water trying to keep that road from washing out again.
  You can see the levee that has not been repaired just above it is 
letting the water come in, flood and potentially destroy the $1.7 
million worth of work there as well as the $1.1 million worth of work 
on the other State highway.
  This is a broader view of what has happened in the Missouri River 
bottom near Hermann, MO. You can see that the waters have come through. 
As I went down with the Army National Guard in the helicopter 
yesterday, I saw many areas where water was pouring through levees that 
were not repaired.
  The levees that the Corps of Engineers has been working on out of the 
Omaha district are about 83 percent repaired. The levees out of the St. 
Louis district are about 50 percent repaired. But in the Kansas City 
area which takes in essentially the Missouri River from Kansas City 
almost to St. Louis less than 19 percent of the levees have completed 
initial repair. In other words, with the spring rains and the rising 
rivers, all of these lands are going to be submerged again. These are 
agricultural lands. These are airports. These are highways. These are 
municipal utilities. These are communities and families who are living 
here and being flooded because the bureaucrats have delayed, dawdled, 
and procrastinated.
  I want to know what the corps' problem is. Why have they decided to 
forsake their responsibility? They have used every means in the book to 
find good excuses for not repairing the levees.
  I talked to about 60 angry people--men, women and children--yesterday 
who wanted to know why their communities are being devastated.
  Mr. President, I cannot answer them. I cannot give them a good reason 
why after we appropriated the money to repair the levees they have not 
been done. Here is a community of Hermann, MO, a historic town. See the 
flooding through here. What is even worse is that you cannot go north 
from Hermann because the highways are under water.
  The story continues to get worse and worse. We appropriated money for 
the Soil Conservation Service, and they were prepared to repair the 
Quindero levee north of Kansas City, the Corps of Engineers EDA said 
EDA might do it. EDA was going to study to the end of May. That is when 
the flood will hit between now and summer.
  Mr. President, the people of Missouri are suffering. I ask my 
colleagues to join me to doing something to get the Corps of Engineers 
to move.
  I thank the Chair and I am grateful to my colleague from Missouri.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair recognizes Senator Danforth of 
Missouri.

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