[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 72 (Friday, June 5, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5668-S5670]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TORNADO IN SPENCER, SOUTH DAKOTA

  Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. President, I returned Wednesday night from my second 
tour of what is left of the small community of Spencer, SD, which was 
devastated, as many know, by a tornado this past Saturday night. Many 
of you may have seen the media reports and the pictures of the utter 
destruction in Spencer.
  After touring the site for the second time on Wednesday, I can 
honestly say the pictures simply do not do the site justice, and it is 
almost impossible to fathom the indiscriminate totality of the 
destruction.
  This tornado, which hit this small town, has been classified as an F4 
on the Fujita rating scale of the National Weather Service. The rating 
means winds have been estimated between 207 to 260 miles an hour.
  As I toured the remains of this small town, the wind literally blew 
the bark off the trees--what trees still remained standing.
  To the community of Spencer, the rating means that the tornado was 
powerful enough to destroy 80 to 90 percent of their town.
  The grain elevator, service station, post office, and library were 
all destroyed, as were all four churches, an antique store, the fire 
hall, and water tower. The town had no sewer, water or power.
  All that is left of Spencer's 120-foot tall water tower is the 
crumpled metal on the side of the street with the word ``Spencer'' 
written upside down now. A tan car hung suspended 5 feet off the ground 
in the tower's mangled legs.
  The grain spilled from the Spencer Grain Company elevator out onto a 
field. Spiky tops of tree trunks stuck up out of the ground, their 
branches stripped of leaves--and furniture, bedding, miscellaneous 
items stuck in the tree tops of what trees did remain.
  Most tragically, the tornado was powerful enough to injure, out of 
the 300-some in the community, 150 people--almost half the population--
and to take the lives of 6.
  The victims were Bev Bintliff, Elizabeth Burnham, Mildred Pugh, 
Gloria Satterlee, Ron Selken, and Irene Yost.
  Bev Bintliff was 68, a Spencer native. She and her husband, Robert, 
moved back to Spencer after living in Oklahoma for a number of years. 
She worked for several local businesses before becoming the city's 
finance officer. Her husband is a painter. And they also operated a 
music shop in the nearby community of Mitchell.
  Elizabeth Burnham was 85, lived in Spencer most of her life. She was 
a widow, and lived alone in her home. She is survived by two daughters.
  Mildred Pugh, 93, a widow, moved from her home of 60 years in Spencer 
to an apartment in the mid-1980s. She was born on the family homestead 
northeast of Spencer and lived in the area all of her life. Her husband 
was a rural mail carrier, and she was a homemaker. Friends say that she 
loved her garden and she loved to deer hunt with her husband. Mildred 
had lived through other disasters. She survived floods, cyclones, 
famine, the Depression, wars, but could not survive this tornado. She 
is survived by a great-nephew, a grandson, and two granddaughters, and 
a sister.
  Ron D. Selken, 62, has been described as a quiet man who enjoyed 
spending time with his family. Selken was born in 1936. He attended 
Hawthorne Elementary in Sioux Falls. He served in the Korean War. He 
worked as a laborer at Gage Bros. Concrete in Sioux Falls until 
becoming disabled because of back problems. In his spare time, Selken 
liked to work on his cars, watch sports and fish.
  He recently became a grandfather for the third time and tragically 
did not get to hold his new granddaughter who was born May 2. On my 
first trip to the tornado site last Sunday, I met Ron's daughter, Kris 
Roelfs, of Sibley, Iowa. I have to say, it was a very touching meeting 
and I felt inadequate that I could only give her my heartfelt 
condolences. Her father had moved to Spencer about eight years ago from 
Sioux Falls. In addition to his daughter, Kris, Ron Selken is survived 
by another daughter, Vicky Selken of Sioux Falls, a son, Kelley of Lake 
Benton, MN. Three grandchildren, two brothers and four sisters.
  Gloria Satterlee, was in her mid 70's and was an organist and pianist 
at the Nazarene Church where her husband, Ward Sr. has been pastor for 
the tiny congregation. Reverend Ward Satterlee was hospitalized at 
Queen of Peace Hospital in Mitchell with broken ribs and cuts but on my 
second visit to the tornado site yesterday, I had the chance to speak 
briefly with Ward as he explained his predicament to Vice President 
Gore.
  The Satterlees celebrated their 50th anniversary last year and had 
lived in Spencer for more than 20 years. Mrs. Satterlee was a homemaker 
who was interested in music and caring for elderly people. In addition 
to her husband she is survived by two children one in Kansas and one in 
northern Minnesota.
  Irene Yost, in her mid 70's was retired and living in a downtown 
apartment complex in Spencer. She had been ailing and had just been 
getting back on her feet when it happened. She was a lifelong resident 
of Spencer, and once owned a business establishment in the community, 
worked as a telephone operator and in a Salem factory and operated a 
Bingo Gas Station for a number of years.
  While we mourn the tragic loss of these people and pray for their 
families, we are grateful for those who survived. Many descriptions of 
the terror the residents felt last Saturday night and of different 
individual's determination to survive have been shared with me 
personally over the past few days or have been shared with the public 
through the news media.

  Linda Morehead's first thought was, ``Oh God don't let it be a 
tornado.'' As the tornado hit, Linda tried to open her basement door, 
but it stuck. She finally got it open and made it down one step when 
the wall between her dining room and the staircase fell and her roof 
blew off. She said that the roof flew off like a frisbee then it was 
all over and that she was down in a pit with stuff all around me like a 
hill.
  Linda was trapped in her home after the storm because her left leg 
became pinned under cement and a radiator. Her leg was broken in two 
places and a chunk of flesh was ripped off when the cement was removed 
by rescue workers. Morehead's arms and shoulders were covered with 
bruises and cuts, but her face was untouched. As rain and marble-sized 
hail began to fall while

[[Page S5669]]

she was trapped she covered her face with a nearby pair of sweatpants. 
In spite of the pain she continues to suffer and the long road ahead to 
recovery, Linda recognizes her good fortune to have survived and 
remembers moments when she didn't think she was going to live through 
it.
  Linda has mixed emotions as she said ``I am angry because everything 
you own is gone. Everything Mom and Dad worked for all their life is 
gone. I get so angry. And then I'm thankful the kids are all right.
  Late Sunday afternoon Linda was still finding debris in her hair--
rocks, pine needles, glass, wood splinters.
  Tammy Kreutzfeldt remembers that she and her family all screamed as 
the pressure built and the roof of their house blew off. She and her 
family looked up and could see the tornado and the sky from their 
basement. Tammy had cuts on her head inflicted from falling bricks as 
she huddled with friends and family members in the basement of her home 
during the tornado.
  Lucille and Jimmy Mone, 89 and 95 years old respectively, crawled 
over glass to safety. Jimmy who had been blown right out of bed crawled 
with Lucille on their hands and knees through shards of glass from 
blown out windows and broken pictures to their downstairs where they 
stayed until the storm had passed. Again, these two amazingly strong 
fighters recognized their good fortune as they looked back on their 
minutes of terror and acknowledged that, ``We're still alive and that's 
the important thing.''
  Arnold Eldeen was driving Saturday night when he spotted the tornado 
that demolished much of his hometown. He raced home and arrived about 
15 minutes after the tornado hit. While Arnold had been able to call 
his two sons before the tornado hit Spencer, it took almost three hours 
for him to find them to ensure they were both alive--thankfully, his 
sons had been able to make it out of Spencer before the tornado ravaged 
the community.
  Amanda Stevens, 85, was in a corner of her basement when the tornado 
struck and she prayed that she would not be pulled out of her basement. 
The tornado ripped the roof off her home, but miraculously the ceramic 
tile remained in place which she tediously laid on the walls 27 years 
ago as she and her now-deceased husband built their home.
  On Sunday, South Dakota's Governor William Janklow acted 
expeditiously to request a disaster declaration for the Spencer area 
from President Clinton. I was extremely pleased that the President 
acted swiftly and responded positively on Monday with a declaration for 
McCook County. While the declaration opens up a lot of assistance to 
help the victims start rebuilding their lives, the assistance certainly 
won't make anyone whole.
  I was also pleased that on Monday, Vice President Gore and FEMA 
Director James Lee Witt both announced they would tour the tornado 
ravaged area. I was pleased to join them on their tour Wednesday. I 
truly believe their visit helped lift the spirits of many of the 
victims.
  South Dakota has been hit by many devastating acts of Mother Nature 
in recent years. While the natural disasters South Dakota has faced in 
the recent past have all been different, two things are consistent in 
the wake of every disaster my state has experienced:
  First, the victims of the disaster always have a positive spirit and 
are determined to survive and rebuild their lives. Having met with 
residents of Spencer twice in the past 6 days, I have been moved by 
their resilence and their ability to remain focused on the future, 
after an act of Mother Nature wiped away the town they called home and 
a lifetime of personal possessions in a matter of minutes. The victims 
have shown a quiet determination to rebuild their lives and I commend 
them for their attitude. It can't be easy and I am committed to doing 
what I can to help each and every resident of Spencer move forward with 
their lives.
  I am always impressed and heartened by the selfless giving of 
concerned individuals coming to the aid of their fellow South Dakotans. 
South Dakotans have made it through tough times before and I think 
South Dakotans rush to reach out to our neighbors in need because we 
all realize that the next disaster could hit us.
  The response was tremendous. The tornado hit Spencer at approximately 
8:45 pm on Saturday night. By 10 pm 300 emergency rescue workers and 
medical personnel were on the scene.
  Volunteers came from almost every city in the region to assist and 
help ease the shock from Kimball to Stickney to Dell Rapids. As a 
stream of ambulances entered city limits packed with volunteers, water, 
and blankets, other ambulances screamed out, loaded with wounded en 
route to hospitals in Mitchell and Sioux Falls.
  Members of the National Guard and the State Highway Patrol were also 
on the scene immediately to assist victims.
  While almost all families had their homes destroyed, very few victims 
have had to seek shelter provided by the Red Cross of FEMA because 
family and friends in the area have opened their homes to the victims.
  Within a day of the devastating tornado in Spencer, businesses and 
individuals from across South Dakota provided tornado victims with 
financial and moral support to help them rebuild their lives. I have 
been extremely touched--though I must say not surprised--by the many 
examples of generosity and compassion exhibited by individuals all over 
our state.
  The community is working together to assist victims, including 
collecting items needed by tornado victims. The Chapter of the American 
Red Cross has set up a fund. The United Methodist Church in Huron will 
give their entire offering of the next weekend to assist the victims. A 
television telethon raised over $500,000 in a matter of hours. Some 
8,000 volunteers--more, frankly, than could be efficiently utilized--
showed up at the Spencer city limits to volunteer. Many other 
communities around the State have set up funds for the disaster 
victims. The South Dakota Community Foundation, which grants money to 
worthy causes, announced it will give $1,000 to every Spencer resident.
  Two nights ago, KELO TV conducted an impromptu telethon to collect 
funds for the victims. The effort collected over $500,000 in a matter 
of hours.
  Perhaps most impressive, in response to a request by Governor Janklow 
for volunteers to come to Spencer yesterday morning, again an estimated 
8,000 people showed up to volunteer in this small town. Governor 
Janklow originally asked for 1,000 volunteers.
  The leaders of Spencer, South Dakota have continued their commitment 
and loyalty to their community all throughout the disaster. Mayor Rocky 
Kirby, owner of the destroyed grain elevator, has spent day and night 
dealing with not only his own personal loss of his business but working 
with Governor Janklow and FEMA officials to get their town back 
together.
  City Council member Donna Ruden stayed up the entire first night 
putting together a map of the community with the names and locations of 
all citizens to assist Governor Janklow, the National Guard, and the 
cleanup crews. As an employee of the Security State Bank, which was 
also destroyed with only the vault left standing, opened her home 
immediately as a make-shift bank, a meeting place for citizens and 
their insurance companies and a place to stop and share their accounts 
of the storm. She placed a sign on her front door, ``please come in''.
  The Red Cross and Salvation Army have done a remarkable job and I 
would be remiss if I did not recognize these people.
  In closing, Mr. President, I just want to again commend the victims 
for their resilience and positive spirit in the wake of this tragedy. I 
also want to assure them that in the coming weeks as the tv cameras and 
media leave and they are left to the day-to-day effort of rebuilding 
their lives, I will not forget about them. I am committed to working 
with individuals and with the different federal agencies offering 
assistance to ensure aid comes when people need it and with as few 
bureaucratic strings attached as possible.
  Again, my thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who 
lost their lives in this tragedy and my best wishes to all of the 
survivors during the next few critically important weeks as they take 
steps to rebuild their lives.
  Mr. CONRAD addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota is recognized.

[[Page S5670]]

  Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I commend our colleague, the Senator from 
South Dakota, Senator Johnson, for drawing the attention of this body 
to the extraordinary tragedy in South Dakota. I think all of us were 
stunned to see those photos of this town, the town of Spencer, which 
was just wiped out. It really is stunning to see the complete 
devastation of that small town.
  I remember seeing the press reports and seeing the pictures and being 
reminded of the devastation we suffered in North Dakota last year with 
the 500-year flood, on top of the worst winter in history, the most 
powerful winter storm in 50 years, and in the middle of all that, the 
fires that destroyed much of downtown Grand Forks, ND.
  Our hearts go out to the people of South Dakota. Our hearts go out to 
the people who have suffered this extraordinary tragedy, to those who 
lost their lives, to those whose lives have been disrupted forever. And 
I think it is important for them to know that those in this body on 
both sides of the aisle will reach out and will help. We certainly saw 
that in our tragedy, and we will never forget the assistance of our 
colleagues. We want our friends in the South Dakota delegation to know 
that we are prepared to help and to reach out and to be of assistance, 
just as they were of help to us in our disaster. So we want to say to 
our colleague, Senator Johnson, when you are back home talking to the 
people who have suffered, they can count on this Federal Government to 
reach out and be there to help in their time of need, just as they were 
there to help others when they were afflicted.
  I also want to say to Senator Daschle, the other Senator from South 
Dakota, obviously, those of us in the Dakotas have a special bond. We 
will do everything we can to help as you go through this difficult 
process of rebuilding.
  Mr. COVERDELL. Mr. President, it is interesting how each of our 
States has experienced disasters in the last several years--you a 500-
year flood, we a 500-year flood, and now this devastating tornado. In 
April, we have had four natural disasters in Georgia: a flood, an early 
freeze wiping out the entire first peach crop, and three separate 
tornadoes. No matter how many times you experience it, the power of it 
is just mind-boggling. I remember years and years ago, on the eve of my 
high school graduation in Lee's Summit, MO, being hit by one of these 
tornadoes that leveled 700 homes to the foundation. I have never seen 
anything like it. It was like a bomb hit.
  You are right. All of our colleagues have been so responsive, and it 
makes an enormous difference when you are faced with that kind of 
situation when neighbors and friends across the country are there to 
help. So I appreciate the remarks of the Senator from South Dakota and 
the Senator from North Dakota.

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