[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 45 (Wednesday, April 16, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3236-S3237]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 FLOODING IN THE NORTHERN GREAT PLAINS

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, first, let me respond to the issue of 
flooding. The Senator from Minnesota said it very well. I was with him 
as we toured part of the Red River Valley last week.
  The Red River, which is one of the only rivers that I know of that 
flows north, flows into a watershed up north that is still frozen. The 
Red River often has problems with flooding. We often cope with the 
challenges of dealing with a flood in the Red River. But this is a 
flood of historic proportions, a century flood, on the heels of a 
winter in which we had five to seven blizzards, the last of which a 
week and a half ago put, in many cases, up to 20 inches of snow in our 
region.
  A massive flood, the worst blizzard in 50 years, massive power 
outages all around the region, and then you understand a little about 
the challenges faced by people in the Northern Great Plains.
  This has been very, very difficult. The Red River today has turned 
into a lake that is now 200 miles long. If you fly over it, it is 
almost inappropriate to characterize it as a river. It is a 200-mile 
lake that is held in by the heroic efforts of some people to fill bags 
with sand and stack them on top of each other and hope that that 
sandbagging will keep water from their homesteads, their farms or their 
houses.
  Also, there are the heroic efforts of the Corps of Engineers, 
contracting with wonderful contractors to build emergency dikes. It is 
some effort in North Dakota, Minnesota, and South Dakota to watch the 
fight to stem the tide of this difficult flood.
  Last weekend, I was in a shelter in Grafton, ND, where people had 
gone in order to seek refuge. They had been for days without any 
electricity in their homes. An 89-year-old woman living alone in her 
home had finally decided, ``I must go to a shelter.'' I talked to her, 
and typical of the tough, gritty Norwegian and German stock in North 
Dakota, she said, well, it was not so bad, that, you know, she was 
getting through it--89 years old, no complaints, fighting the flood, 
fighting the elements, living in a shelter, but she knew that we would 
get through this. And that is the spirit that exists in our part of the 
country.
  There was a woman in north Fargo named Sylvia Hove. Just before I 
left, to come back to the Senate here in DC for votes this week, I 
stopped by Sylvia's house. The amount of diking they had to do to keep 
the wall of water out from the back of her house and her backyard is 
truly extraordinary. Then, at 4 o'clock in the morning, with this very 
tall dike that they had built--and I helped pile some of the sandbags 
on that dike the week previous--the dike springs a leak.
  Sylvia's son, who is there from out of State, hailed down a 
policeman. The policeman put out the alert on the radio. And at 4 
o'clock in the morning there were four policemen there, just like that. 
The policemen routed their cars, stacking sandbags, dealing with the 
leak in the dike until others came.
  It is the way that neighbors have helped neighbors, and, yes, in 
Minnesota, in Breckenridge, the North Dakota side, all up and down, 
especially the valley, the Red River Valley in North Dakota and 
Minnesota.
  Unfortunately, this is a flood that comes and stays. Most floods we 
see on television are some raging river, completely out of control, 
taking houses with it down the middle of the stream. That is not the 
way the flood on the Red River occurs. It is a river that runs north; 
it runs very, very slow. It has a very insignificant grade, and the 
result is the crest comes but the flood will stay for a long, long 
while.
  They will be fighting the flood in North Dakota and Minnesota yet for 
some weeks. It is truly a very significant challenge and a heroic 
effort on the part of mayors and city councils and young people and old 
folks and just ordinary folks who are doing extraordinary things to try 
to deal with this calamity.
  I was at a sandbagging operation in Grand Forks. They put out a call 
for volunteers. I went into this giant area where they have two big 
sandbagging operations. There must have been 200 volunteers there 
ranging from 15 years old, I think, probably to 80 years old, all of 
them working hard piling sandbags on trucks. It really is quite an 
extraordinary thing to see.
  There are a couple of outstanding issues. The head of the Corps of 
Engineers, Colonel Wonsik, called me last evening at home and gave me a 
description of where we are with respect to Wahpeton and Breckenridge, 
Fargo, Grand Forks, Grafton, Drayton, Pembina, all the way up and down 
the valley. He feels that they are making some progress, but it is an 
enormous challenge.
  The mayor of Fargo called me about an hour ago. Again, it is an 
enormous challenge, but they are fighting a significant battle. All of 
the preparation they are doing is preventing the enormous damage that 
could have been done had we not had the diking that is now in place.
  Some have asked the question about the emergency help that is going 
to be available on a 75 percent/25 percent ratio, 75 percent Federal, 
25 percent State and local. The Governor had asked for a 90-10 ratio. I 
will just observe on that point the folks in FEMA and the 
administration have a formula: If the damage in a region goes above $40 
million, then they go to a 90-10 formula. That will almost certainly 
occur in our region, probably has already occurred. That will be 
retroactive. So it is almost certain that our region will have this 90-
10 formula in which the rest of the country reaches out in a disaster 
to say, we are here to help you, just as we have reached out on 
earthquakes and tornadoes and floods in other regions of our country. 
So that is something that is important.
  Second, the Internal Revenue Service has been very helpful. As you 
know, there was a traffic jam in the District of Columbia last night; 
people at midnight trying to post their income tax returns on time. The 
Internal Revenue Service extended the date for filing to May 30 in the 
Dakotas and Minnesota where disaster has been declared. That is going 
to be helpful. They indicated they did not have authority to waive the 
interest charge during that 45-day extension.
  I introduced a piece of legislation last evening in the Senate to 
waive that interest charge. It seems to me if the IRS says--and I 
appreciate the fact they have said it--that a tax return will be timely 
filed if it is filed by May

[[Page S3237]]

30, you ought not charge the interest on something you consider timely 
filed. So I would like to see that interest charge waived.
  But we very much appreciate the cooperation of the Internal Revenue 
Service. People out there trying to man dikes and fill sandbags and so 
on are not able to get back to find their records to file a tax return 
if they had not already done it. They have been working on this flood 
and responding to it now for several weeks, so we appreciate the 
cooperation of the Internal Revenue Service.
  I especially, as I conclude, want to echo the words of the Senator 
from Minnesota. The men and women in our region of the country have had 
about as tough a time as you can have this winter and now this spring. 
I am enormously proud of what they are doing. I have been privileged to 
be there the last two weekends and most of the week previous to be a 
part of that. We will get through it. North Dakotans and Minnesotans 
and South Dakotans are tough people who have faced tough challenges in 
the past. We will get through it and rebuild and have better days ahead 
of us.

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