[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 41 (Wednesday, April 9, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2879-S2881]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRAGIC WEATHER CONDITIONS

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, a couple of my colleagues this morning 
have spoken, as I did yesterday, about the devastating blizzards and 
floods that have confronted people in North and South Dakota and the 
Minnesota region in recent days. I suppose only those who have been 
there can fully understand the dimension of the tragedy. It is, indeed, 
a tragedy.
  North Dakota has had the toughest winter that it has ever had, with 
five and six major blizzards, closing down virtually all roads, 
including the interstate highways, causing serious problems. On top of 
that, with the expected floods that would come as a result of the 
record amount of snowfall from these previous blizzards, last week

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something called the grandfather of all blizzards came to North Dakota.
  Leon Osborne, who works at the University of North Dakota and is 
someone who runs a weather service that I think is tops in our region, 
described this blizzard as the worst in 50 years in our State. This 
blizzard came on top of all of the other blizzards and on top of the 
flooding that was already beginning in our State. The snowfall last 
weekend ranged anywhere from 12 inches to over 20 inches of snowfall 
with winds 40 and 50 miles an hour in some parts of North Dakota. The 
picture of North Dakotans trying to fill sandbags in the middle of a 
snow blizzard is quite extraordinary.
  The Dakotans have had a very, very difficult time coping with these 
problems. Last Tuesday we had a meeting with President Clinton and the 
head of FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the 
President signed a disaster declaration for North and South Dakota.
  My understanding is that he probably signed a disaster declaration 
for some of the Minnesota counties today. There are teams of folks from 
FEMA now on the ground in our region, and there will be a visit to 
North Dakota by the head of FEMA and by the Secretary of Transportation 
and other senior officials. My understanding is that the Vice President 
will also visit North and South Dakota and Minnesota the day after 
tomorrow.
  I intend to travel with the senior officials as they go to North 
Dakota, as do my colleagues, and we will be a part of a group that 
attempts to make certain that all of the resources of the Federal 
Government are made available at this time when it is needed in North 
Dakota and in our region to help people who are trying to dig out from 
this blizzard and trying to cope with massive flooding.
  The newspaper headlines tell it better than I can. This one describes 
it pretty well: ``Down, But Not Out.'' North Dakotans are a tough 
people. They have suffered through a good many weather-related events 
in years past, but this was about as tough as it gets. ``State 
Paralyzed by Blizzard.'' The newspaper headlines describe all of the 
myriad events that have occurred. ``Area Residents Hang Tough Despite 
Flooding.'' ``Search for Heat and Power Endangers Lives: With Power 
Lines Down, Crews Struggle To Restore Power to Thousands of Homes.'' It 
has been a very, very tough time.
  The stories of the folks who have had to endure this are really quite 
remarkable. We have men and women who are trying to restore power to a 
State in which up to 100,000 citizens were without power. Some are 
still without power. Men and women, linemen and others working for 
utility companies, electric co-ops and others are out in tough 
circumstances trying to restore power to North Dakota. They are doing 
an extraordinary job for our State.
  Livestock losses are going to be very substantial in North Dakota. 
The threat to human life has been substantial. Fortunately, we have not 
had many deaths in North Dakota, but it has been a very challenging 
time. We are told that in some areas, one half of the young calves 
being born--and this is calving season for ranchers--one half of the 
calves are dying as they are born.
  They are being found on the ground in circumstances where the 
ranchers simply could not save them. One rancher, I believe, brought 
five or seven of his calves into the home to try to save their lives. 
All of them died. Also, 300 milk cows were killed when a dairy barn 
collapsed under the weight of the snow. There are stories about cows 
and calves with a full 1-inch thick coat of ice on them as a result of 
the blizzard, rain, and the snow.
  Farmers and ranchers have attempted, especially for the young and the 
vulnerable calves, to use air dryers to try to remove that ice from the 
coats of those calves. Then the power fails, so you cannot use air 
dryers, and the calves die. Those are just some of the stories of 
people who have been confronted with this challenge.
  There was a story, in fact, yesterday about two fellows who were 
leaving a North Dakota community and were caught by this blizzard with 
whiteout conditions and they became stuck, could not move, could not 
see. They saw a building just faintly, just a few yards away, so they 
went to the building, which turned out to be a small bar on the edge of 
this town. So they broke into the bar and then used the telephone to 
call the wife of one of the two men who had broken into the bar and had 
the wife call the bar owner.
  Remember, this is a whiteout blizzard, with no traffic available to 
move, and they are stuck and caught. The bar owner called the bar where 
the two fellows had broken in to seek shelter and said, ``Well, help 
yourself to whatever is there. There is frozen chili in the freezer.'' 
The folks were stuck there, I guess for a day and a half in the place. 
I suppose there are worse places to be stuck if you are in the middle 
of a blizzard, but it is a story that is replicated all across our 
State of neighbors helping neighbors, especially now confronting 
digging out from a blizzard and confronting the raging flood that will 
come.
  The flood is going to be a very significant problem. Part of it has 
already hit. I want to tell my colleagues about the Red River--which, 
incidentally, is the only river in America that runs north, I believe. 
Because it runs north, it is running into an area up north that has not 
yet thawed, and the result is the water cannot flow easily because it 
is flowing toward ice. So it starts down south in our State and floods 
there first and then the flood exacerbates as it goes north.
  In Wahpeton, flood stage is 10 feet, the current height of the river 
is 16 feet and is predicted to go to 18\1/2\ feet. In Fargo, ND, the 
flood stage on the Red River is 17 feet, the river is at 33 feet and 
expected to go to 37\1/2\ feet. In Grand Forks, flood stage is 28 feet, 
and it is expected to crest at 49 feet. That is the Red River. The 
Sheyenne River is the same story. At West Fargo, the Sheyenne flood 
stage is 16 feet, and the current height is 23 feet. In Abercrombie, 
the Wild Rice River flood stage is 10 feet and the current height is 24 
feet.
  So we face enormous challenges now as we confront digging out from a 
blizzard that represented the worst blizzard in 50 years and as we 
anticipate the continuation of a flood. This will be the worst flood 
that we will have had in a century.
  Now, Mr. President, today is Wednesday, and I indicated we met with 
the President on Tuesday. President Clinton indicated to us that the 
head of FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, would come to 
North Dakota. He indicated he would invite a Cabinet Secretary, too, to 
come, and a senior team of administration officials will visit our 
region. I am also told that Vice President Gore will visit North 
Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota on Friday, the day after tomorrow, 
and I expect that the congressional delegation, myself included, will 
join him in that visit.
  I appreciate very much the attention of the agencies and the 
administration in understanding the difficulty we face, understanding 
the gravity of the situation that yet exists in North Dakota with power 
lines down, with thousands of North Dakotans still without power after 
many, many days. I believe that we will appreciate very much in North 
Dakota the visit from the Vice President and from the head of FEMA and 
Cabinet officials who come to view firsthand what could be done on 
behalf of the Federal Government to make all of the resources of the 
Federal Government available to North Dakotans as they work together 
and fight together to confront these challenges.

  Mr. President, my colleagues and I will be working in the coming days 
on the supplemental appropriations bill, which we hope will include the 
kind of resources that are necessary for all of the agencies to respond 
to this problem. Mr. President, there are not many States in our 
country in which interstate highways are closed or will be closed. Yet 
this morning Interstate 29 has one lane closed, and it is expected that 
Interstate 29 will be closed completely in North Dakota. In fact, a 
dike will be built across the interstate when it is closed, and it will 
be closed for some time. Interstate 94, a major artery east and west in 
our State, is now surrounded by lakes of water on both sides, and some 
predict that we will probably not escape having that interstate closed 
as well. But it is a very difficult circumstance, with road crews and 
others struggling in a crisis situation to meet the needs of people who 
have been confronted by this blizzard and these floods.

  Many are finding that just the infrastructure things we normally take 
for

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granted are now shut off, and it makes dealing with all of this much, 
much more difficult. I suppose electricity is the thing that most of us 
almost always take for granted every day. I have talked to several 
North Dakotans in the last hours, and they reiterate that it is 
something we take for granted, but the loss of electricity, especially 
in the circumstance in North Dakota, with record low temperatures this 
morning, dating back to the 1890's, has been a very difficult 
circumstance for families struggling to keep warm and struggling to 
confront these elements.
  So, Mr. President, Senator Conrad, myself, and Senator Wellstone, who 
spoke earlier, and others, intend to go to North Dakota with the senior 
Federal team, either tomorrow or Friday, and do everything we possibly 
can to try to bring some help to some folks who are now trying to help 
themselves dig out and prepare for floods. We hope that when all of 
this is done--and it is going to be some while--that the record will 
show that everybody rushed to the folks in this region who have been 
hurt, the North Dakotans and South Dakotans and Minnesotans, and 
everybody did everything humanly possible to make life better, and 
extended a helping hand to try to get them through these challenges.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Hutchinson). The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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