[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 142 (Saturday, October 10, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12351-S12353]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       HURRICANE GEORGES AND THE DISASTER MITIGATION ACT OF 1998

 GRAHAM. Mr. President, on September 30th, with my colleagues 
Senator Mack and Florida Governor Lawton Chiles, I participated in a 
helicopter tour of Florida's Panhandle, where once again, Mother Nature 
has subjected Florida's citizens to her wrath. After first devastating 
the Florida Keys, Hurricane Georges moved northward and severely 
impacted the Panhandle, producing rainfall in excess of 2 feet in some 
areas.
  In the Florida Keys, Georges damaged over 1,500 homes destroying or 
causing major damage to approximately 640 residences. Initial estimates 
indicate that Georges caused over $250 million in insured damage in the 
Keys, and there are millions more in uninsured damages. Many residents 
in the lower Keys have only recently had their power restored, and 
Federal, State, local, and voluntary agencies provided food, water, and 
ice for more than a week as the Keys finally emerged from this 
emergency situation.
  Unfortunately--as I was able to view firsthand--Georges path of 
destruction did not end in the Keys. Even in its weakened state, 
Georges caused extensive flooding and isolated tornadoes throughout the 
Panhandle. At least 20 major roads were closed or partially closed, and 
evacuations continued for days in many low-lying areas. During my visit 
to the area, 14 shelters remained open, providing safe harbor for at 
least 400 Floridians who had been forced from their homes.
  As a result of this hurricane, the President issued an emergency 
declaration for 33 Florida counties, in order to provide immediate 
Federal assistance to protect the lives and property of affected 
residents. On September 28, the President issued a major disaster 
declaration for Monroe County, which authorizes Federal disaster 
recovery assistance for local governments and citizens in the Florida 
Keys. As of today, 16 counties in and around the Panhandle have been 
added to this declaration, and I want to acknowledge the outstanding 
efforts of both the President and the Federal Emergency Management 
Agency (FEMA) in expediting Federal assistance to the State of Florida.
  Mr. President, throughout 1998, I have come to the Senate floor to 
describe the destruction and misery that Florida has experienced as a 
direct result of natural disasters. This year, Florida has been 
subjected to a series of unprecedented natural disasters. Even for a 
state that is experienced in dealing with such disasters, Floridians 
have been tested again and again by what may be one of the worst years 
in Florida meteorological history. In late January and early February--
in the midst of our State's dry season--several Northern Florida 
counties were deluged by massive floods. Not long after, parts of 
Central Florida were devastated by thunderstorms and tornadoes that are 
more typical in the summer months. Beginning in May and ending in late 
July, a deadly combination of intense heat and prolonged drought 
sparked more than 2,000 forest fires in Florida's 67 counties. Finally, 
over the next several weeks, Florida will begin the long and painful 
process of recovery from the widespread damage that has been caused by 
Hurricane Georges.
  I ask that this September 30 article from the Miami Herald--which 
summarizes Florida's 6 Presidential disaster declarations in more 
detail--be printed in the Record.
  The article follows:

               Florida Get Federal Aid a Record Six Times

                            (By Tom Fiedler)

       For Floridians, this has been a banner year of hell and 
     high water. President Clinton said so.
       Even before Hurricane Georges slapped the Keys unsilly, 
     then dumped tons of fresh rain on an already sodden 
     Panhandle, Florida had established in 1998 a new--although 
     dubious--record: recipient of the most presidential disaster 
     declarations in a single year.
       ``It's been a very hard year,'' said Joseph Myers, state 
     director of emergency management, who on Tuesday was into his 
     seventh straight day of working around the clock monitoring 
     the latest disaster. ``But that's what we get paid to do.''
       He would be entitled to wonder if that could possibly be 
     pay enough, at least this year.
       Like home-run sluggers Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, Florida 
     established its new record with style, shattering the 
     previous marks by more than a couple.
       Since New Year's Day, which Myers spent monitoring a chain 
     of tornadoes ripping their way across the central peninsula, 
     causing at least $24 million in damage to crops and homes. 
     President Clinton has declared at least parts of Florida to 
     be federal disaster areas six times.
       That topped the previous records of three in 1992--the year 
     that included the mother of all disaster declarations. 
     Hurricane Andrew--and 1995, which featured Hurricanes Erin 
     and Opal, both concentrating their fury on the upper Gulf 
     Coast.
       To qualify for a presidential disaster declaration, the 
     amount of damage must be beyond the ability of state and 
     local government to assist, either because of the amounts of 
     money involved or the types of assistance needed.
       When the president issues a declaration, it makes available 
     federal money to reimburse

[[Page S12352]]

     the state, and local governments for the immediate costs of 
     meeting the emergency--such as in providing police and fire 
     services, maintaining shelters or in restoring vital 
     services.
       It also activates several federal programs to aid in a 
     community's long-term recovery. That array includes 
     unemployment assistance to those whose jobs may have been 
     lost or interrupted because of the disaster; mortgage 
     assistance; low-interest loans to help businesses and farmers 
     get back on their feet; money for governments to rebuild 
     highways or restore other services--including replacing lost 
     tax revenues from damaged businesses; and money that can be 
     used to avert future disasters, such as constructing dikes 
     against floods or beach dunes against hurricanes.


                          variety of disasters

       What distinguishes 1998 from previous years is the variety 
     of disasters that has befallen the state. Besides hurricanes, 
     which can destroy people and property through high water and 
     wind, this year's declarations have included several for 
     killer tornadoes, one for massive flooding and--most dramatic 
     of all--one for infernal fires that raged for nearly two 
     months over an area that at one point stretched nearly from 
     Tallahassee to Miami.
       Missing only were the biblical swarms of locusts and the 
     medieval bubonic plague.
       Myers said his personal disaster calendar began last 
     Christmas, when he was summoned to the state's emergency-
     management headquarters to monitor a winter storm exploding 
     out of the Gulf and hammering counties in Central Florida. 
     the storm--considered the shock troops of El Nino--spun off 
     dozens of tornadoes, washed out hundreds of homes and 
     virtually ruined tomato and strawberry crops that were 
     ripening. Its cost: about $24 million to taxpayers alone, not 
     counting what insurance companies paid to individuals.


                           tornadoes in miami

       Holidays seemed as magnets to these storms. On Groundhog 
     Day, another winter storm rumbled out of the Gulf to cut 
     across the lower peninsula. This one triggered tornadoes in 
     the heart of Miami.
       The so-called Groundhog Day storm savaged 600 homes in 
     Dade, Broward and Monroe counties. It left two tugboats 
     parked on Sunny Isles Beach and caused $2 million in damage 
     to the Keys' lobstering industry.
       Barely three weeks later, another storm hammered the 
     central part of the state, coming ashore in the Tampa Bay 
     area but spreading throughout the peninsula. Myers said the 
     president was still in the process of issuing the disaster 
     declaration for the Groundhog Day storm when the bad weather 
     hit.
       ``So they just added this onto the one they were already 
     working with,'' he said. ``The storm kept on coming, and they 
     kept on adding.''
       The most dramatic were bands of swarming tornadoes that 
     bracketed Orlando in March, flattening communities near 
     Kissimmee and those east of Sanford. All told, nearly two 
     dozens Floridians were killed in those weather disasters.


                           most of the state

       ``Eventually they got to 56 counties,'' only 11 short of 
     Florida's 67 counties, Myers said. ``They finally stopped 
     adding them on April 24.''
       The lull in El Nino's wind and rain proved anything but 
     benign, however. With such a wet spring, the underbrush in 
     the state's forests grew at an incredible pace, becoming lush 
     and thick.
       ``Then it just dried up. It didn't rain,'' Myers said. ``We 
     knew that El Nino would produce fires, but we thought they 
     would come later.''
       June was the driest month in Florida's history. The 
     underbrush became tinder.
       On June 6, the anniversary of D-Day, a major fire flared in 
     Flagler County between Daytona Beach and St. Augustine. It 
     raged for 48 days. President Clinton and Vice President Al 
     Gore were among those who came to inspect the disaster. Fire 
     crews from around the nation came to fight it.
       ``We ended up getting a major disaster declaration and 15 
     fire suppression grants to pay for the firefighting,'' the 
     first time Florida had ever received such compensation, Myers 
     said.
       Florida's cost of fighting the fires alone hit $156 
     million.
 Mr. BUMPERS. Mr. President, my experiences with disasters this 
year--in addition to the unforgettable destruction of Hurricane Andrew 
in 1992--have motivated me to re-evaluate the policies and programs 
that are implemented to ease the pain and economic loss caused by 
disasters. First, we must recognize that we cannot prevent severe 
weather events. In fact, it seems that as we approach the millennium, 
the Nation is experiencing severe weather more frequently--and more 
intensely--than ever before. Second, as our population grows, our 
coastal and riverfront communities have greatly expanded, placing an 
even higher number of citizens at risk from floods and hurricanes. 
Finally, expanded requirements for housing and residential structures 
have increased both the number and value of property developments in 
high-risk areas.
  Taken together, these facts clearly demonstrate that we will continue 
to experience losses from natural disaster. Therefore, we must act now 
to limit these inevitable losses through a proactive, nationwide loss 
prevention and mitigation initiative. We cannot continue to respond to 
repeat disasters in the same locations in an endless cycle of damage-
repair-damage-repair.
  It is for these reasons, Mr. President, that Senator Inhofe and 
myself introduced the Disaster Mitigation Act of 1998. Our legislation 
focuses the energies of Federal, State, and local governments on 
disaster mitigation, shifting the Nation's efforts toward 
preventative--rather than responsive--actions, in order to prepare our 
citizens for disasters now and in the future.
  I worked very closely with Senator Inhofe to develop this bipartisan 
legislation, which has been reported out of the Environment and Public 
Works Committee. This legislation will more comprehensively and 
efficiently address the threats we face from disasters of all types. 
The bill is composed of two titles: Title I seeks to reduce the impact 
of disasters by authorizing a ``pre-disaster mitigation'' program; 
Title II seeks to streamline the current disaster assistance programs 
to save administrative costs, and to simplify these programs for the 
benefit of States, local communities, and individual disaster victims.
  To address the problems associated with the damage-repair-damage-
repair cycle, the legislation places its primary emphasis on 
comprehensive pre-disaster mitigation. This bill will authorize a five-
year pre-disaster mitigation program, funded at $35 million per year, 
to be administered by Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA. The 
pre-disaster mitigation program will change the focus of our efforts, 
at all levels of government, to preventative--rather than responsive--
actions in planning for disasters. Such a change in ideology is 
critical to reducing the short- and long-term costs of natural 
disasters. It will encourage both the public and the private sector, as 
well as individual citizens, to take responsibility for the threats 
they face by adopting the concept of disaster mitigation into their 
everyday lives. Just like energy conservation, recycling, and the 
widespread use of seat belts, disaster mitigation should become a 
concept that all citizens incorporate into their day-to-day existence.

  Since 1993, under the leadership of Director James Lee Witt, FEMA has 
truly changed its way of doing business. In the past five years, FEMA 
has become more responsive to disaster victims and State and local 
governments, and has ``reinvented'' itself by choosing to focus its 
energy on mitigating, preparing for, responding to, and recovering from 
the effects of natural hazards. FEMA has already taken an important 
first step in advocating pre-disaster mitigation by establishing 
``Project Impact,'' their new mitigation initiative, in local 
communities throughout the nation. I am proud to say that Deerfield 
Beach, Florida, was the first community to be chosen as a participant 
in Project Impact. By authorizing the conduct of Project Impact for 
five years in this legislation, we will definitively endorse both the 
program and Director Witt's leadership, and we expect that the 
initiative will produce measurable results in reducing the costs of 
disaster in the future.
  Mr. President, this legislation is the result of coordination and 
cooperation with FEMA, the National Association of Emergency 
Management, the National League of Cities, representatives of the 
private and voluntary sectors, and numerous other state and local 
governmental organizations. I strongly believe that this legislation 
represents a historic change in the nation's efforts to prevent the 
effects of natural disasters. By taking proactive steps to implement 
mitigation now, we will reduce the damage, pain, and suffering from 
disasters in the future that have become all too familiar to us from 
the disasters we have faced in the recent past.
  Mr. President, I urge my colleagues to support Senator Inhofe and 
myself by joining with us in our efforts to protect the citizens of the 
U.S. from disasters now and in the future. I ask the Senators who have 
most recently been affected by Hurricane Georges, as well

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as the many Senators whose constituents have been impacted by 
catastrophic disasters over the past several years, to support this 
legislation and ensure its passage before the end of this 
session.

                          ____________________