[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 27 (Wednesday, March 5, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S1942]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               DISASTERS

  Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, let me start by expressing on this floor, 
as I did this past Monday, my sympathy for the families who have lost 
loved ones in the last week due to tornadoes, due to flooding and other 
natural disasters. This has been a very, very tough week. In my home 
State of Ohio, we are experiencing a flood of once in the last 30 or 40 
years magnitude--we have not experienced anything like this since the 
1960's. Not only is my home State of Ohio experiencing this, but, of 
course, Kentucky and Indiana is as well. Vice President Gore is, as I 
speak, in Ohio, having the opportunity to view firsthand the damage. We 
appreciate his visit. We welcome it.

  We also appreciate the prompt action by President Clinton in 
designating 14 Ohio counties, to make them eligible for disaster 
assistance. Governor Voinovich has now made an additional request to 
the President to add two additional counties, Hamilton County, 
Cincinnati, as well as Clermont County. Both these counties have been 
hit exceedingly hard by the flooding. In fact, we have yet to see the 
high-water mark, which should not occur for a few more hours in 
Cincinnati and Clermont County, the Richland area--that part of our 
State.
  We really have an area in Ohio from Monroe County, up river, all the 
way down to Hamilton County. What we have seen is what we always see 
during tragedies such as this. We see Americans responding. And, in the 
midst of the tragedy, the suffering, what we see is neighbors helping 
neighbors and people out there just making a difference. We have Red 
Cross volunteers. We have emergency department volunteers. We have fire 
department volunteers. The National Guard is actively involved. But 
most of all, we have people who are just volunteers, who are just out 
there making a difference, who do not necessarily belong to any group 
except they are Ohioans or Kentuckians or Hoosiers from Indiana, and 
they are out there making a difference in their local communities. So 
let me pay tribute to them.

  The work that we have at hand is going to continue. Once the 
spotlight of CNN and the network news goes off Ohio, Kentucky, and 
Indiana and goes off the river communities, the work is going to have 
to continue. We will have to be hanging in there and doing what we can.
  I appreciate the prompt response of FEMA and the Federal officials 
who were in Ohio yesterday, traveling with Lt. Gov. Nancy Hollister. I 
appreciate their prompt response and prompt recommendations to the 
President. I look forward to working with them, as well as working with 
the local communities, in the weeks and, frankly, months ahead.
  We are seeing not only a tremendous amount of damage, in the millions 
of dollars, to homes, trailers, people having to be relocated, but we 
are also seeing an immense damage to the infrastructure of the southern 
part of the State of Ohio. I don't think any of us know what this is 
going to amount to. We won't know until the river goes back and things 
begin to get back to normal before we can assess the full damage. When 
you look at some of the counties in southern Ohio, there is not a one 
of them that has the capacity to respond, as far as dollars are 
concerned. This is something that cannot be budgeted. We, of course, 
will be looking forward to working with FEMA and other agencies to get 
assistance in there to those counties.

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