[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 120 (Friday, September 11, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H7610]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    NATURAL DISASTER RELIEF NEEDED FOR SYRACUSE AND CENTRAL NEW YORK

  (Mr. WALSH asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WALSH. Mr. Speaker, Monday morning, Labor Day, about 1 a.m., my 
family and I awoke to a storm of such magnitude and destruction that I 
have not witnessed in my 50 years in my hometown of Syracuse. When it 
abated, two were killed, dozens were injured, with millions of millions 
of dollars of property damage to homes and businesses.
  The next morning I toured the city with Governor Pataki, Mayor 
Bernardi and County Executive Pirro, and was absolutely amazed at the 
power and the breadth and the destruction of the storm. That morning 
also I spoke with James Lee Witt, the highly competent director of 
FEMA, who had been in discussions with our State Director, Mr. Jacobi, 
and I urged him, as I did President Clinton in a letter the following 
day, to please hurry as quickly as possible to make the determination 
necessary to declare Syracuse, central New York and nine other counties 
a Federal disaster area.

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