[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 50 (Thursday, April 24, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H1865-H1870]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
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RED RIVER VALLEY FLOODS
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Mica). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of January 7, 1997, the gentleman from North Dakota [Mr.
Pomeroy] is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority
leader.
Mr. POMEROY. Mr. Speaker, my remarks tonight have nothing to do with
political party or political ideology. In fact it has rather to do with
something much more basic than that, disaster of an unprecedented
character that has inundated the second largest city in the State that
I represent, the State of North Dakota, and caused hundreds of millions
of dollars of damage up and down the Red River in light of the
disastrous floods we continue to experience. During the next few
minutes I want to brief my colleagues about what brought this about,
what weather circumstances were out there that caused
[[Page H1866]]
flooding of this unprecedented character.
Mr. Speaker, I want to tell my colleagues of the preparations made to
fight the flood, because I think it is important that they understand
we did not just sit and give way to the river. In fact, this is only
the final stages of what had been a heroic several-week period of
frantic effort to beat these waters back. I want to tell you, sadly,
about how the battle for Grand Forks was lost and how the city has now
been totally inundated and the consequences of it. I want to bring you
up to date in terms of how people are coping with this disaster and
assess finally where we go from here.
First, what brought all this about? Well, this has been one winter
for the books in North Dakota. We are used to tough weather, we pride
ourselves on it, but this year we had an unbelievable series of first
occurrences, more snowfall than ever, worse blizzards than ever, a 50-
year storm on April 8, only now not quite 3 weeks ago, dumping more
snow on already land that was just buried in snow. We had the first
Presidential disaster declaration issued statewide for a snow
emergency.
Now very unusual to have a snow emergency, but in this circumstance
we literally could not deal with the volumes of snow on our roads that
were impeding access, critical access, to medical facilities and the
like for the citizens of North Dakota, as you know many scattered about
on the farms and remote smaller towns across the State. We needed more
help in keeping our access to the facilities, and that is why as we
coped with the snow, the Presidential declaration issued statewide had
become acquired.
I think that we would have been OK but for the blizzard of nearly 3
weeks ago. The meteorologist tells us that this storm alone was a 50-
year event, worst storm in 50 years.
So you take a situation where the land has been saturated with
wetfall, covered with more snow than we have ever had in the history of
recording snowfall in North Dakota, and add to it the worst blizzard in
50 years, and you had all the elements for a true disaster.
As the snow started to melt, we began to see in the rural areas just
what we were up against. This picture shows what we have seen across an
awful lot of rural acreage in North Dakota, standing water of flooding
proportion and the small tributaries which carried it to the major
river arteries also flooding. As the floodwater went from the rural
reaches to the larger rivers, the flooding accelerated.
We began with the State really following the blizzard of nearly 3
weeks ago, the April 6 blizzard, in a virtual deep freeze. In fact we
had some tragic loss of life due to exposure the second week in April
as the State coped with freezing temperatures and power outages. As the
weather warmed up, at last, and all the snow melted, the water really
started to flood.
Now we thought we were ready for the floods that we knew were to
come. The Weather Service had given us early forecasts predicting
severe flooding and giving us specific numbers that allowed the Corps
of Engineers to begin the work on the dikes for these cities literally
weeks earlier than had ever been attempted before. By the time we came
into the month of April, millions of dollars had been spent elevating
the levees and getting them ready for the flood water that we knew was
to come.
General Furman, the head of civil works for the Army Corps of
Engineers, surveyed the preparations and indicated that he thought this
represented the very best advanced measure work the Corps of Engineers
had ever attempted, the best effort to stop cities from flooding
represented in weeks of frantic activity, activity including the
movement of massive amounts of clay and dirt in earthen levees at the
city-wide level and then, as individual homeowners prepared, literally
millions of sandbags, an estimated 6 million placed in Grand Forks
alone, put in place bag by bag by bag, with the countless hours of
hundreds and then thousands of volunteers.
The floods impacted in particular the Red River Valley and caused us
the most severe flooding that we have had to deal with, and the Red
River is somewhat unique in North Dakota; it flows north. This is an
unfortunate character for a river in the north country because you take
water in the south and you send it into ice in the north before it is
melted, frequently resulting in ice jams and exacerbating the flooding
problem. All up the Red River Valley the cities have had problems;
Wahpeton having their crest occur literally in the height of that April
6 and 7 blizzard, people enduring ice and snow to place urgently needed
sandbags in dikes that were just about to give way. Wahpeton fared
relatively well through the flooding crests that they sustained.
Unfortunately, their sister city, Breckenridge, MN, did not fare as
well, and there have been hundreds of homes flooded in that city.
North flows the river. As the problem eases in Wahpeton, the problem
grows for Fargo and Moorhead. Frantic efforts have saved most of those
cities, although dozens of homes have been lost in that fight as rural
houses could not be protected and as urban ones in some neighborhoods
gave way. Urgently constructed secondary dikes prevented much greater
flooding in that area.
Coming now to Grand Forks, certainly the greatest loss we have
sustained in the flooding, the river running now at 54 feet. That is
over a flood stage of 28 feet and over a normal elevation for that
river of 16 feet. A river that on a summer day is 16 feet deep is 54
feet deep as it rampages through the neighborhoods of Grand Forks
tonight. This is several feet above the forecast. In fact, it is
entirely possible that inundation would not have occurred had we
prepared for a height of this magnitude. It is by a factor of several
feet the highest flood ever reported in Grand Forks, ND, and they did
not have the dikes constructed to the level to deal with it. Frantic
and truly heroic efforts made in the final hours of the fight to get
the levees up with the rapidly increasing height to the river
unfortunately were unsuccessful.
The general river flows in Grand Forks normally run at about 5,000
cubic feet per second which is how they measure river flows. The water
flowing by Grand Forks today is 110,000 cubic feet per second, 22 times
the normal rate of flow, which gives you a very good idea about the
amount of water in the Red River system that is funneling by Grand
Forks and inundating that city and threatening two cities to the north,
Drayton and Pembina, as the river crests continue to work their way
north.
Unfortunately the battle for Grand Forks, as anyone knows who has
seen the television footage, was lost. It is a very flat city and the
dikes were not capable of being lifted to the final elevations the
floodwater required. As the dikes gave way and the streets in the
lowest lying parts of town began to be inundated, they flooded also the
city's storm sewer system. A storm sewer system very efficiently takes
runoff water from city streets to the river when the river is at its
normal elevation, but in this flat city when the river is at an
elevation that is higher than the city streets, it just as efficiently
transfers the water from the river throughout the neighborhoods. That
is why only 1 in 10 of the flood victims in North Dakota had flood
insurance. The great majority was well outside the 100-year flood
plain, but water came charging through the storm sewers and bubbling up
through the manhole covers on every corner slowly but surely inundated
virtually 90 percent of the city of Grand Forks.
There were some very dangerous periods during the loss of the city of
Grand Forks. There were evacuations occurring in the dead of night,
people forced to leave their homes with the possessions that they had
on their backs in advance of the flooding waters. Others had slightly
more time.
I watched the Red River High School serve as an evacuation center,
and I will tell you it looked something like you might see out of a war
zone. People, evacuees from the city I know so well coming flooding
into the school and being routed on to schoolbuses and sent to the
shelter at the Grand Forks Air Force Base, all keeping them out of
harm's way and the ever-rising waters.
The hospital for the city that had 200 patients, many of them
critically ill and in intensive care, had to be evacuated as their
water system became polluted. People were med-evac'd to hospitals
throughout North Dakota and Minnesota. Fortunately all of that transfer
occurred with no loss of life. All of the evacuations occurred with no
loss of life.
[[Page H1867]]
The University of North Dakota, the largest university in North
Dakota, a school of 11,000 forced 3 weeks before the end of the
semester to just shut it down. The president of that university
indicated to the professors: Give your students the grades they have
earned to date or give them incompletes, but we are done with the
semester, there will be no commencement, school is out, school is over,
get your students out of town.
All of this occurred as the water rose, and the next two charts I
would show you go to show you the dimensions, the depths of the water
that especially the lower lying parts of town had to contend with, yet
again more than 90 percent of the town ended up being inundated.
This is a home that has been in the water a day or two, and as you
can see it is literally floating. Houses will float, and so these
houses, a number of the houses, will be totally wrecked as they floated
off their foundations, as the one in the picture illustrates.
This shows a line of cars, people forced to leave their houses so
quickly they could not even get their vehicles, and those vehicles have
been bobbing like toy cars and trucks on the streets as the water has
so completely inundated them, as you can see.
Just when we thought it could not get any worse it got worse. A fire
broke out that ultimately claimed 11 of the major buildings in the
downtown intersection. This picture shows the first building to go into
flame. They believe the cause of it was broken gas pipes. I talked to a
fireman that was down fighting the fire, and he says, you know it is
ironic, but a fireman's best friend is water. Water is a critical
element we use to control fire. And yet we could not fight this fire
because there was too much water, too much water on the street to get
our equipment down, and they literally dove under water trying to
locate hydrants to hook up their hose, and when they finally did get
their equipment moved in rough proximity to the fire, got their hoses
hooked up to the hydrants, the city's water system had been so badly
damaged that there was no pressure for the water to fight the fire.
Ultimately it was fought by air, Forest Service planes dropping a fire
retardant on it and a Coast Guard helicopter using a device that was
capable of bringing river water over the flame ultimately controlled it
again after 11 buildings were lost, buildings including the Grand Forks
Herald, the city's newspaper, one of the State's largest newspapers as
well as a major bank and other major commercial buildings in downtown.
The devastating aftermath is revealed in the next two pictures I
have. You have a city that one person called it a mixture between
Venice with the water and Berlin with the charred remnants of
buildings. This is the scene today, a scene that has been widely
reported in newspapers across the country and across the world
reflecting the extent of the devastation that Grand Forks, ND has had
to cope with.
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The loss is as comprehensive as it is horrific. I mean, this is a
God-awful scene, but just as God-awful is the fact that this disaster
has touched virtually everyone in the community. I was there last
weekend, and for an example, on a boat ride, as we toured the
devastated downtown, the photographer taking pictures said, as we
passed the newspaper, I might get a little emotional here. I asked him
why in particular. He had lost 25 years of negatives in the fire at the
Grand Forks Herald, all of his life's work reflected in his negatives,
all of them torched and left without one in that fire.
Later that afternoon I was on a street assessment looking at areas of
town that had not yet been evacuated and the determination being made
whether or not they needed to be evacuated. The policeman that was with
me on that assessment had already lost his home, and the city
attorney's home was subject to imminent threat and has now also been
inundated. The mayor of Grand Forks, Mayor Pat Owens, a woman who has
shown such tremendous character and courage in the face of this
disaster had, all the while she maintained her public leadership, faced
deep personal challenge. She had a 92-year-old father that she could
not get to leave his house even though he was being flooded. He finally
agreed to leave when necessary and agreed to take his dogs along. Her
own house, aside from worrying about her father, was also lost.
When I flew out Monday morning from Grand Forks, the people at the
Northwest Airlines ticket desk were unshaven and unshowered, not
surprising, given the fact that there is no water in Grand Forks. They
indicated that to a person, the people at the counter had each lost
their homes. Their families had been evacuated. But they said it could
be worse, we still have employment.
The telephone company is the only operating business in Grand Forks
today, and it is operating because it is completely sandbagged. Crews
are working around the clock pumping out water and actually using blow
dryers to keep the cables dry. Boats bring in supplies to maintain the
24-hour shift.
The Grand Forks Herald, I believe, is a real example of just the
courage of this community in coping with the disaster.
Mr. Speaker, the city is presently publishing in a school north of
town. The paper is being printed in St. Paul and flown back for
distribution in Grand Forks free of charge so that people can track the
information, and there is no advertising revenue in these newspapers
supporting this city effort.
This column, ``The Day That Changed Everything,'' was literally
written by the editor as the newspaper building burned and destroyed
completely that newspaper. The community, being desperate for news,
continues to benefit from the heroic efforts of the Grand Forks Herald
and its staff, and I really salute them for their effort.
Mr. Speaker, the community response to this disaster has really been
overwhelming. The Grand Forks Air Force Base, the major Air Force base
13 miles out of town, has brought resources to bear that have been
critical to our getting through this. They took a massive three-bay
hangar and turned it over as an evacuation center, housing up to 2,500
evacuees on cots; not very comfortable cots I know, because I slept on
one Saturday and Sunday night in that shelter. But the hospitality, the
friendliness, the support of encouragement provided by the men and
women of the Air Force working at that base was something to behold.
They have done a tremendous service and shown what an essential part of
our community they truly are.
Families throughout the region, both in North Dakota and the
Minnesota side, have phoned into radio stations with the most
unbelievable offers you have ever heard on the air: We have a home. We
have room, we have a spare room, we will take a family. We have a
finished basement. We will offer to house a family for the duration,
until they can get back into their home.
Can you imagine in some of the areas of this country people turning
their homes open to total strangers for a period of time that is
anything but certain, but could literally run weeks, if not more than a
month? Well, that is what happened in great number in North Dakota. As
a result, the number of people having to spend the entire duration of
the evacuation period in that Air Force base has now dropped to under
300 as people find more comfortable shelter with friends, relatives, or
these wonderful volunteers taking total strangers into their homes and
into their families.
The mayor, I believe, put in perspective what has happened to Grand
Forks. She said, we have suffered a disaster. Our hearts are broken,
but we will get through this. It could be worse. Property, as difficult
as it is to lose precious, lifelong possessions, can be replaced, homes
can be rebuilt. But to date, we have come through this disaster without
a single loss of life, and life is truly irreplaceable. That record
held and held again today in Grand Forks, and let us all hope and pray
that that continues to be the case, and we will avoid the ultimate
disaster, loss of life, in this flood.
Well, where do we go from here? I will tell my colleagues where we
go. We pull together and we build back. The local support has, as I
mentioned, been absolutely amazing. And what North Dakotans have seen I
think to their amazement over the last several days is the extent of
national support
[[Page H1868]]
that has been extended. There are innumerable stories I could tell my
colleagues, corporate and individuals from across the country reaching
out and assisting. AT&T put free phone lines immediately into that
shelter, for example. Life USA Today Insurance Co. called me in my
office yesterday and said, how can we help? Can we send cash, can we
send people up and help clean out? Anything we can do, let us know. The
AFL-CIO has contacted me and said, we want to help. We have people that
lost everything they have. Do you have ways you could suggest we can
help? Money or trade skills as we build back?
I think, making it real personal, something happened in my office
this morning that took me by surprise and was incredibly special to me.
I saw a fellow I had not seen before, a boy with him. I figured maybe
they were from North Dakota visiting the Nation's Capital. But no, they
are people that live in the area, and the 7-year-old wrote this note
that he wanted me to share with the people of Grand Forks. To the
children of Grand Forks:
My family and I survived Hurricane Andrew 5 years ago in
Florida, and I know that all of you will triumph over these
floods of 1997. Accept these small gifts, and good luck to
all of you. Peter Boyce, 7 years old, Jamie Elementary
School.
Well, Peter, his father went on to explain, insisted that they pull
together some bottled water, took the canned goods they could spare,
and they brought them up, two boxes full. And I am under instruction
from Peter Boyce to get those to the children of Grand Forks.
That is just a perfect example of how people have reached out. There
are 1-800 numbers established, which I do not believe protocol allows
me to share with you on the floor. But the Red Cross has an 800 number,
and in addition there is a 1-800 number set up through FEMA, the
Federal Emergency Management Agency. And any of my colleagues that
might like to individually provide that kind of support demonstrated by
the gesture of Peter Boyce, I would urge you to contact those numbers.
In spite of how touched we are with this national outpouring and the
charitable outreach of thousands of Americans across the country, a
number that I believe is going to even grow larger, we need the help of
the Federal Government. I will tell my colleagues why we need the help
of the Federal Government. It is kind of illustrated by a true story
that occurred as the dikes were giving way. An engineer for the Corps
of Engineers, a very talented woman engineer that had been there for
all of the building of the dikes, she was frantically looking at her
topography maps, looking for a secondary line of defense against the
flooding waters. And she was crying and she said, there is no high
ground, there is no high ground.
Well, unfortunately, that is the case in a figurative way with the
status of the city of Grand Forks right now. There was not a part of
the community left untouched, nothing to build upon. The financial
community, devastated. The university, sent home. The business
community, under water and then aflame. We are going to have to
completely rebuild this community, and it is going to take all of our
help and all of our work.
There have been some wonderful things that have occurred this week.
The President came to Grand Forks, ND, and if my colleagues could only
have seen what he did for the morale of the people spending the nights
in the shelter. He told them: You are not in this alone. We are
standing with you. And it meant an awful lot.
The President returned and within 1 day of his return sent to the
Congress an amendment to the supplemental appropriations bill
requesting an additional $300 million for relief in the Grand Forks
area. The House Committee on Appropriations marked up this morning, a
markup that convened 6 days after the dikes breached. They indicated
that they also wanted to help and passed $210 million of relief on the
$488 million that was in the additional relief package, bringing the
total, not just for Grand Forks, but for North Dakota, Minnesota, and
South Dakota, to $698 million. The chairman said it right when he
announced to his committee members this morning: This is not enough.
More will be required, but we are still assessing the damages, and this
is a place to start.
Disasters know no partisan lines, and I am very pleased to announce
on the floor this evening that Speaker Gingrich will be visiting Grand
Forks, ND, tomorrow, late afternoon, touring the devastation. The
gentleman from Texas [Mr. Armey], the House majority leader, a North
Dakota native himself, will be touring the area on Monday, all to learn
more about the extent of the devastation we have experienced and to be
prepared to help.
Ultimately, the Federal resources will be a critical part of our
rebuilding. But even more critical than that and more fundamental than
that is the tough character, the tough and resilient character and the
optimism in the face of all odds of the people of North Dakota.
I would close with my comments before yielding briefly to the
gentleman from South Dakota [Mr. Thune] who in his State also has
suffered a disaster, and he will tell you about it. But I want to close
with this story I think reflecting the resilient character of the
people of North Dakota.
As I mentioned earlier, I spent Saturday and Sunday night with the
evacuees in that Air Force hangar. On Monday morning as I got up to go
to the airport, it was about 5:30 in the morning, and in a hangar full
of more than 2,000 people you are always going to have some people
milling about. Even that early hour I noticed two women about 70 years
old walking around. I went to visit with them a little. I was amazed at
how good they looked. Their hair was all fixed, they were presenting
themselves very, very well, especially given the fact that they were
staying in a hangar and it was 5:30 in the morning. Out of my surprise
I said, you look great. And one woman replied: Well, of course; some of
these soldiers are really good-looking.
I think that underscores the unquenchable optimism of the people of
North Dakota, and with the help of the Federal Government and with the
help and prayers of the American people, we will be back and we will be
back bigger and better than ever.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to my friend and colleague, a freshman Member
who distinguishes himself with his conscientious service to his State
of South Dakota, Mr. Thune.
Mr. THUNE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my good friend and colleague
from North Dakota, Mr. Pomeroy. I would like to echo many of the
sentiments that he has just expressed, because I too have seen what he
has seen firsthand. I had the opportunity earlier this week to view the
damage in Grand Forks, ND, and it truly looks like a war zone. It is a
city that has been utterly decimated. As we flew over it and saw that
the entire area was just engulfed and consumed in water and the burned-
out buildings, it looked like a scene from a World War II movie.
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They have a tremendous challenge ahead of them, and it is one that is
going to take all of us working together to see that we get North
Dakota and South Dakota back on their feet.
I never thought that I would be saying after the winter and spring we
have gone through in South Dakota that we are fortunate, but in this
particular case, we are. After having seen what North Dakota is going
through, some of our State's problems do not seem quite as big as they
once did.
Nevertheless, we have had what has been an unprecedented weather
circumstance in our State. Conditions this year truly are historic in
the history of the Dakotas. I, too, represent an entire State, like my
neighbor to the north, and we are very geographically isolated. We are
large States. We are truly accustomed and used to having adverse
weather, tough circumstances and conditions to deal with. Yet, this
year I think has tested that beyond the limits.
I recall an incident not too long ago, just recently in my State of
South Dakota, the city of Watertown, where people were out sandbagging
in 30-below wind chills and 60-mile-an-hour winds. That is the kind of
season that we have had to contend with.
It is heart-wrenching when you see the stories and witness firsthand
the people who have been torn from their homes. My friend, the
gentleman from North Dakota, as he mentioned, has spent some time in
the relief center
[[Page H1869]]
there, and had an opportunity to see again firsthand what people are
going through and enduring, the effect, the toll it takes on families.
A few weeks back my wife and I as well had an opportunity to spend
some time in the Red Cross Emergency Relief Center in Watertown, SD,
and it really is one of those things that you have to experience and
see firsthand to have an appreciation for what these people are going
through.
I have talked with friends in my State who, as a result of April
blizzards, have experienced enormous losses of livestock. It was bad
enough during the blizzards during the winter, but then we got a late
spring blizzard during calving season. I talked with one friend who has
lost 50 calves in calving season, another who has lost 20.
I think it is very important to note that for those of us who live in
States like the Dakotas, that is our livelihood. We have an incredible
challenge ahead of us to rebuild and to start to recover. Our economies
are so dependent upon agriculture, and the cattle losses that we have
experienced and much of the crop damage that is going to be caused as a
result of not being able to get in the fields and plant, we are going
to have a very, I think, difficult task ahead of us. We are going to
need help.
That is why it is so important that we work together. We appreciate
very much the response we have seen from those at the Federal level,
the President visiting North Dakota this last week, and again, the
Speaker coming out tomorrow to see North Dakota. The various Federal
agencies have responded in a very quick and immediate way, and we want
to credit them for the help they have given, and look to them again for
assistance.
I think, again, the thing that I would note from all this, and we
have seen an historic response, I think, from the Federal Government,
we have also witnessed incredible examples of people working together.
We have seen tremendous leadership at the local level; the mayor of
Grand Forks, the mayor of Watertown, who have stepped up and led. Also
our Governors in the States have helped take precautions so we have not
lost lives.
We are very blessed, I think, not to have lost lives in this. But
there was an incredible, tremendous toll on property, people putting
their lives back together. But people have come together and worked the
very best in the human spirit, we have witnessed that firsthand. It
really speaks well I think to the pioneer, frontier spirit that the
people in our State have. Their spirits have been bent but they have
not been broken, and we will rebound. We will get back on our feet.
I can recall, again, going back in our history in 1972 with the flood
in Rapid City that decimated the entire city, and the rebuilding effort
that has been going forward there. It is now an economic wonder. It has
become a great model for cities around the country. The economy is
performing well. So Grand Forks I think as well will come back, but it
will be a tribute to the leadership that they have there, and again, to
the will and spirit of the people in that community and throughout our
entire State.
It is a work in progress. We have much that remains to be done. We
are very appreciative of the great effort that has been put forward by
the administration, the various Federal agencies, our State
governments, our local governments, and individuals who have stepped up
and been willing to make the sacrifices that are necessary to help our
States and some of these communities get back on their feet.
I look forward to working with my colleague, the gentleman from North
Dakota, and other members of our delegation in our respective States,
and Minnesota as well, and in the Senate, and working with our
Governors and the various Federal agencies and through the
appropriations process to bring the type of relief and assistance that
is necessary.
I think we all realize these are difficult times fiscally, and we
have to do these things in a very responsible way. Yet, we also have to
recognize that these are truly conditions that have put people in a
position where there are things they can do, but others that are just
beyond their control. We are going to have to step in and help.
I appreciate my friend, the gentleman from North Dakota, for yielding
to me.
Mr. POMEROY. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman
for his remarks.
Mr. Speaker, this is a floor that sees an awful lot of tough,
partisan debate. I think it is very important that our colleagues see
tonight that when it really matters, when it is really on the line,
like it is for the people that we represent in the context of this
disaster, this is a body that can, in a very bipartisan way, step up to
the plate and reflect, really, what the American people are thinking, a
desire to provide help for people who need help.
Mr. Speaker, there is another North Dakota native in this House. I
mentioned earlier that the majority leader is a native of North Dakota.
So is the gentleman from Minnesota, Jim Ramstad, who very capably
represents Minnesota and the Minneapolis area, specifically.
He has been absolutely more genuine and more sincere in his offer of
support, just as sincere as he could be. I appreciate all he has done
for us already, and look forward to his continued help as we try to get
the disaster assistance put into place.
Mr. RAMSTAD. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me. I
also want to thank my friend, the gentleman from North Dakota, Earl
Pomeroy, and recognize his efforts; the gentleman from
Minnesota, Collin Peterson, who represents the Seventh District; our
colleague, the gentleman from South Dakota, John Thune; the gentleman
from Minnesota, Gil Gutknecht, who is from southern Minnesota. For you
people, your districts have been most directly impacted by the horrible
floods of 1997, and they all have represented their people so well at
the time of their greatest need.
I also have never been more proud of the people I represent in the
Twin Cities suburban Third District. They have also been there, and
they are there, they are going to remain there in support of our
friends in North Dakota and South Dakota.
Last weekend there were sandbagging operations around the clock at a
correctional facility in Hennepin County there, with inmates working
hand in hand with high school students, and 500 people from the Mormon
Church and other churches; volunteers coming out to help sandbag and
send the sandbags up north; food banks, many food banks helping. There
is one I am familiar with, Lake Country Food Bank, Hy Rosen, the
executive director. Right now as we speak, I talked to him earlier
today, they are loading eight or nine semis of dry food to send up to
people in need;
The churches, sending choirs to cheer up the people in these flood-
devastated areas;
The schools, young schoolchildren, trying to cheer up other young
people who have been so devastated;
Families pitching in, corporations.
My colleague, the gentleman from South Dakota, mentioned several
corporations. Northwest Airlines offered free transportation to get
emergency supplies up. The State bar association, I know the 16 law
firms, major firms in Grand Forks, were wiped out, 8 by the fire, 8 by
the flood; everything destroyed, all their books, records, wiped out.
Cheryl Ramstad Voss, who happens to be my sister and president-elect of
the State bar, she has assembled a group tomorrow in the afternoon of
the 50 big law firms in the Twin Cities to get together and help jump
start those firms.
The Governors have been tremendous. The National Guard, General
Andreotti in Minnesota, the Salvation Army has been there. Also I want
to thank FEMA Director James Lee Witt, Jim Franklin, who is the
emergency management director in Minnesota, and the local officials;
the mayors as well.
Mr. Speaker, I do not want to take all my 5 minutes, I know there are
other speakers. But I just want to conclude by saying that I strongly
support the President's call for a $488 million Federal relief package.
One-half is emergency dollars which the President has already committed
during his visit, and $200 million of it depends on a special
appropriation from us here in Congress.
We need to continue to work together in a bipartisan way over the
next week or two to finish the job of
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getting this relief money to those people who so desperately,
desperately need it.
I know the gentleman from Louisiana [Mr. Livingston] from the
Committee on Appropriations said yesterday that he expects strong
bipartisan support and quick action, and the people of those devastated
areas certainly deserve nothing less.
I am also, in conclusion, grateful to the Speaker. I know the
gentleman invited him to tour the area to see firsthand how bad it is.
I appreciate the invitation to go along with the Speaker. My favorite
cousins had to evacuate their homes in Grand Forks. In fact, their
daughter and her husband and little baby do not know what they have to
come back to. It is in the area that is hard hit. We do not know for
sure at this time. But I know the Speaker has made a commitment to
support whatever is necessary to get this flood-ravaged area repaired
and restored, and to help the people in the short term as well.
We will be there with the full cost of emergency rescue and cleanup.
We will be there for the permanent repair and restoration of
facilities, as well as the short-term assistance, the disaster
unemployment relief, the disaster food stamps. Then, over the longer
term, we will be there with a Federal task force; a Marshall plan, as
the President called it, for flood-ravaged areas.
I thank my friend, the gentleman from North Dakota for yielding to
me, and for the tremendous job that he has done in serving his people
well.
Mr. POMEROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his remarks. The
majority leader, the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Armey], said when it
comes to disasters, once a North Dakotan, always a North Dakotan. The
Congressman, although so capably representing Minnesota, has certainly
shown with the depths of his concern and the sincerity of the energy
behind his effort to do something to help that that is true for him as
well.
Mr. Speaker, this concludes the portion of our discussion about the
Grand Forks, ND disaster and the disaster that has impacted our entire
area. I do ask for Members' support and prayers. Mr. Speaker, I yield
back the balance of my time.
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