[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 83 (Monday, June 16, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5711-S5712]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    RECOGNITION OF BRAD STIEFVATER, TODD MATTHIES, AND DOUG MOKROS' 
            ASSISTANCE DURING THE NATURAL DISASTERS OF 1997

 Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. President, I want to take this opportunity 
today to recognize the important work of the McCook County ambulance 
crew, Brad Stiefvater, Todd Matthies, and Doug Mokros, 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 under water when record low temperatures turned swollen 
streams into sheets of ice.
  At the height of the snowstorms in South Dakota, the McCook County 
ambulance crew was called to the home of Steve and Sheila Hoiten to 
deliver the couple's baby. Wind gusts of 40 miles per hour dropped the 
temperature to nearly 70 degrees below zero and created near white-out 
conditions as Brad, Todd, and Doug drove the family 45 miles to Sioux 
Falls. The ambulance crew battled drifts 8 to 9 feet high to get the 
couple safely to the hospital where Morgan Ann Hoiten was born, safe 
and sound.
  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 
the McCook County ambulance crew 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. Brad Stiefvater, Todd Matthies, and Doug 
Mokros of

[[Page S5712]]

the McCook County search and rescue unit 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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