[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 100 (Tuesday, July 15, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7433-S7434]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




[[Page S7433]]


                       DISASTER AREAS IN MICHIGAN

  Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, on July 2, a series of high-wind storms 
raged through my State of Michigan. They struck in numerous communities 
ranging from Chesaning, a small city in Saginaw County, to Thetford and 
Vienna Townships in Genesee County to Holly, MI, and Oakland County, to 
parts of the city of Detroit to the small communities of Highland Park 
and Hamtramck in Wayne County, and then ultimately across to Lake St. 
Clair passing through several of the communities on the east side of 
our State, including Grosse Pointe Farms and Grosse Pointe.
  In their wake, they left enormous damage, destruction and the loss of 
human life. Already--and I give great compliment to both our State as 
well as our Federal emergency services--we have had great assistance in 
trying to address the problems left behind by this storm. The folks 
from FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, were quickly on the 
scene to give advice and counsel to our State authorities, and then to 
assess the damage for purposes of determining what Federal assistance 
might be provided.
  Our own State government, under the leadership of John Engler, was 
quick to act through its emergency services to assist the various 
communities affected. And I am happy to report that by and large we 
have had a remarkable public response, not just through the government 
agencies, but also through the volunteer efforts of people in 
communities throughout our State who have risen to the challenge of 
addressing this serious disaster and crisis.
  In the aftermath, we have moved forward in seeking the designation of 
a disaster area for a number of the communities that were struck by 
these storms. Just last Friday afternoon, the President declared parts 
of Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb Counties as disaster areas, as well as 
part of Saginaw County. And we are delighted by that news.
  At the same time, I just yesterday morning visited an area that has 
not yet had such a designation made regarding it. That is the area 
outside of the city of Flint, MI, Thetford Township. And in visiting 
Thetford Township yesterday, I could not help but immediately conclude 
that we need to expand the designation of disaster areas to include 
this township and the neighboring township of Vienna Township in 
Genesee County.
  According to the National Weather Service, three tornadoes hit this 
area during the storm. These communities are small. The population of 
Thetford Township is roughly 8,000 to 9,000 people. Almost all of them 
are in one form or another in the business of agriculture. Many of them 
are family farmers.
  This township--approximately 36 square miles--is almost exclusively 
farmland north of the city of Flint. Just to put it in perspective what 
transpired there, one individual was killed, a variety of livestock 
were likewise lost, two huge steel power lines were down, feed bins 
were overturned, barns were obliterated, silos were decapitated.
  I visited a number of these farms yesterday and was amazed that more 
people weren't hurt, because the devastation and damage was incredible. 
It looked, as I reported in my last remarks about the storms, like a 
Hollywood movie set, except this was not acting, this was real, and 
families affected were not actors and actresses, but real people in our 
State.
  So I pledged yesterday that I would come back today and not only talk 
about this, but work to try to secure for these tiny communities the 
designation as disaster areas that has been afforded much larger 
communities throughout the State who likewise are deserving of such 
designation being affected by the storms.
  Again, I want to thank the President. I want to thank FEMA for their 
rapid response to our requests last week. And I say that I do not think 
there is going to be any cost involved in expanding the designation to 
include Thetford and Vienna Townships, but the injuries and the damage 
done there are every bit as real and every bit as serious to those tiny 
communities as was the case in larger ones.
  Interestingly, although wholly unconnected with my visit yesterday, 
in the Detroit Free Press a story about these communities ran entitled 
``Hardy Farmers Weather the Storm; Despite Damage, They're 
Rebounding.'' I ask unanimous consent that that article be printed in 
the Record.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

              [From the Detroit Free Press, July 14, 1997]

  Hardy Farmers Weather the Storm-- Despite Damage, They're Rebounding

                            (By Bill McGraw)

       Thetford Township.--Don Rasmussen took refuge in a big cow 
     barn on the dairy farm he manages when the sky turned black 
     and the wind began to howl.
       Parts of other buildings began blowing through the air. The 
     rain fell sideways. The noise grew into a constant roar.
       Then it really got crazy.
       ``The cows just freaked,'' Rasmussen recalled Friday, while 
     a newborn calf nearby was taking its first steps. ``All 
     around me, they were stampeding. They aren't the most 
     intelligent animals, and they had no idea what was happening. 
     They just ran.''
       Rasmussen remained safe, both from the tornado and the 
     stampeding Holsteins, and guided a reporter Friday around the 
     battered farm near Clio in Genesee County.
       Tornadoes don't usually hit big cities, so the impact of 
     the July 2 storm on Detroit and its suburbs has dominated 
     news coverage. But the National Weather Service identified 
     three twisters in the rolling farmland outside Flint, and at 
     least one passed through the 1,000-acres owned by Larry Niec. 
     The result: six dead cows and heavy damage.
       Because of storm damage estimated at $2.3 million to this 
     and other sites in southern Michigan, the U.S. Department of 
     Agriculture's Farm Service Agency last week asked that 
     federal low-interest loans be made available to Michigan 
     farmers like Niec. This assistance would be separate from the 
     federal funds President Bill Clinton approved Friday.
       Niec (pronounced NEESE), who looks younger than his 51 
     years, said: ``We have insurance. It covers a lot, but not 
     everything.''
       His farm looks like a giant worked it over with a 
     sledgehammer.
       ``It's so sad,'' said Rasmussen, 47, who lives across the 
     street from Niec's 300-cow dairy operation.
       The gusts decapitated silos, obliterated barns, overturned 
     heavy feed bins, toyed with a semi-trailer, scattered calf 
     hutches and downed two huge steel towers that carry several 
     power lines. The storm thoroughly spooked the cows, but 
     Rasmussen said most of them appear to have returned to 
     normal.
       The winds spared some things, such as the manure lagoon and 
     an old red barn. But there is so much damage that the 
     insurance adjuster has yet to complete his estimate.
       As the storm moved away, friends and relatives arrived to 
     help round up the cows, calm them, take them to the milking 
     parlor and ship the daily output of 1,750 gallons of milk.
       Rasmussen and Niec are sanguine about the future.
       Niec notes that the tornado damage, while spectacular, is 
     no more harmful than the droughts, fluctuating milk prices 
     and bad crops that have made dairy farming a tough way to 
     earn a living.
       When friends asked Niec how he stood the stress, he told 
     them it isn't much different from any other day.
       Said Niec: ``We're going to suffer, but we know how to 
     suffer.''

  Mr. ABRAHAM. Featured in the story is discussion of a gentleman named 
Larry Niec. Larry's 1,000-acre farm is depicted here with a caption 
that reads in part: ``strewn with pieces of once-sturdy buildings, like 
his roofless dairy barn and severed silo. Six of his cows were killed 
during the storm.''
  Obviously, a very difficult time in the farm season for him and for 
his neighbors. And I do not want to read from the entire article now. 
It is included in the Record.
  As I say, the devastation was incredible. Mr. Niec, of course, being 
a hardy soul, as depicted in the headline of the story, noted that the 
tornado damage, while spectacular, is no more harmful than the 
droughts, fluctuating milk prices, bad crops, and so on, which the 
farmers learn to live with in their day-in and day-out existence. When 
friends asked Larry how he stood the stress, he told them that it isn't 
much different from any other day. He said, ``We're going to suffer, 
but we know how to suffer.''
  I met Larry yesterday and he, indeed, is somebody who will persevere. 
As I said, the cost and the damage is so considerable that we need some 
help for these folks as well. Of course, under the current system, they 
will be entitled to the assistance of the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture and through the Small Business Administration. But it is my 
fervent view that the communities of Thetford and Vienna Townships 
deserve to be designated, as some

[[Page S7434]]

of the others have, as an official disaster, to receive a broader range 
of support that they deserve and should be available to them.
  Without going into all of the details, I can only say, if you drive 
down any of the roads, whether it is Center Road or Genesee Road or 
Bray Road in Thetford Township, as I did yesterday, and you see the 
decapitated silos with huge chunks of cement strewn everywhere and 
trees in which semitruck trailers ended up after they were hurled into 
the air, and if you see the huge openings that have been driven through 
the fields and the forest lands, you know if this area doesn't qualify 
as a disaster area, I don't know what would, Mr. President.
  The damage was not just of public property; it is to private 
property, also. Happily, it wasn't more serious, but definitely it 
deserves our attention. For that reason, today I will be writing our 
Governor, as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency 
authorities, to ask that the designation be expanded to include this 
community. I hope they will respond as they have responded already. I 
wish to make it clear that I don't know of any reason not to, nor in 
any way am I criticizing actions today. We are moving piece by piece 
through the process. I hope they will respond to this as well and help 
us to make sure that these people--they may be small in numbers, as I 
say, but the people who live there are just as real as the folks in all 
the other communities. So I intend to work very hard to make sure all 
the relief possible is made available to them.
  Mr. President, I thank you and yield the floor at this time.

                          ____________________