[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 81 (Wednesday, June 11, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S5544]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 RECOGNITION OF BOB BELLACK AND RON HEUMILLER'S ASSISTANCE DURING THE 
                       NATURAL DISASTERS OF 1997

 Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. President, I want to take this opportunity 
today to recognize the important work of two McCook County Highway 
Department employees, Bob Bellack and Ron Heumiller, in ongoing 
disaster recovery efforts in South Dakota.
  Early this year, residents of Minnesota, North Dakota, and South 
Dakota experienced relentless snowstorms and bitterly cold 
temperatures. Snowdrifts as high as buildings, roads with only one lane 
cleared, homes without heat for days, hundreds of thousands of dead 
livestock, and schools closed for a week at a time were commonplace. As 
if surviving the severe winter cold was not challenge enough, residents 
of the Upper Midwest could hardly imagine the extent of damage Mother 
Nature had yet to inflict with a 500-year flood. Record levels on the 
Big Sioux River and Lake Kampeska forced over 5,000 residents of 
Watertown, SD, to evacuate their homes and left over one-third of the 
city without sewer and water for 3 weeks. The city of Bruce, SD was 
completely underwater when record low temperatures turned swollen 
streams into sheets of ice.
  At the height of the snowstorms in South Dakota, Bob Bellack and Ron 
Heumiller drove snowplows at 3 to 4 miles per hour and in zero 
visibility to open roads for rescue and emergency medical crews. Wind 
gusts of 40 miles per hour dropped the temperature to nearly 70 degrees 
below zero as the medical crews followed Bob and Ron for 263 miles to 
rescue families without heat and stranded motorists from all over the 
county.
  While those of us from the Midwest will never forget the destruction 
wrought by this year's snowstorms and floods, I have been heartened to 
witness firsthand and hear accounts of South Dakotans coming together 
within their community to protect homes, farms, and entire towns from 
vicious winter weather and rising flood waters. The selfless actions of 
Bob Bellack and Ron Heumiller illustrate the resolve within South 
Dakotans to help our neighbors in times of trouble.
  Mr. President, there is much more to be done to rebuild and repair 
our impacted communities. Bob Bellack, Ron Heumiller, and the 
individuals at the McCook County Highway Department illustrate how the 
actions of a community can bring some relief to the victims of this 
natural disaster, and I ask you to join me in thanking them for their 
selfless efforts.

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