[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 123 (Tuesday, September 21, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H8447-H8448]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            HURRICANE FLOYD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Rothman) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, first allow me to convey my sincerest 
condolences and sympathies to the people of North Carolina. This has 
been such a terrible natural disaster, unprecedented in anyone's 
memory. I can only imagine the suffering that the people of North 
Carolina have already experienced and what lies ahead for them. Our 
prayers are with my colleagues and the people they represent, and we 
will do our part here in this body to assist my colleagues in assisting 
them.
  But, Mr. Speaker, I want to talk a little bit about the effect of 
Floyd's fury that was felt in my State of New Jersey. We are now in the 
process of rebuilding our lives in the Garden State, lives that almost 
without exception were touched by Floyd.
  In my district alone, it was not just the people who live near bodies 
of water. Virtually every single body of water, whether it was a lake 
or a stream or river overflowed its banks in unprecedented ways. There 
are countless tens of thousands of homes all through my district where 
basements were flooded, first levels were flooded, no, not much loss of 
life, thank God, but tremendous suffering, heartache, loss of worldly 
possessions, yes, but thank goodness not much loss of life.
  But our people will be spending a great many weeks and months 
rebuilding their lives as they try to come to terms with what happened 
in the wake of Floyd.
  I will tell my colleagues what they say the amount of damage in New 
Jersey just in northern New Jersey alone, $500 million worth of damage.
  In addition to the flooding of the homes and businesses and towns 
washed out, phone service was out. In my neck of the woods in northern 
New Jersey, a million people were without phone service beyond just 
their own little towns, more than a million people. Thirty-five 
thousand people had no phone service whatsoever.
  There was no wireless cell phone service which we rely on a great 
deal in

[[Page H8448]]

northern New Jersey, no fax machines, no ATM machines.
  Now my colleagues can say, well, why did this happen. We had families 
who were unable to check in on their loved ones, whether children 
checking in on their parents or vice versa if they lived out of town. 
We had patients unable to find their doctors, doctors unable to reach 
their patients. We had businesses unable to communicate with their 
customers, the customers with their businesses, suppliers with 
businesses.
  How could this have happened? Well, I have asked that we undertake a 
Federal inquiry into how a vital industry, a vital utility such as the 
phone company, could have permitted or how they handled in fact Floyd's 
aftermath with so many million people and more without phone service 
for 3, 4, 5 days.

                              {time}  1930

  Tens of millions of dollars were lost in terms of business alone, 
notwithstanding all of the heartache and emotional isolation felt by so 
many in my communities.
  Well, the switching facility is apparently located near a body of 
water that had flooded and overflowed its banks in 1977. We are going 
to learn more about the details, but it is critical that in the year 
1999 we find out why there was no redundancy, no duplication of 
switching devices, which would have prevented all together this 
tremendous lack of telephone service and the lack of disruption and 
damage to people's lives and businesses.
  I am meeting with representatives from the phone company tomorrow. 
And we have a great many dedicated men and women who work for the 
telephone companies who did their utmost to prevent disruption, but I 
am afraid that there may need to be a new way of thinking on behalf of 
those planning for the worst. Y2K, the year 2000, is coming upon us. 
There are always the potentialities for accidents or, God forbid, 
terrorist incidents. If we are not prepared in the metropolitan area of 
New York and New Jersey for these kinds of disasters, natural and 
humankind, what can we look forward to around the country? That is why 
we are conducting a federal investigation and will hold hearings on 
what could have been done to prevent that kind of tragedy.
  As my time runs out, I just want to say to the people of New Jersey 
that we are fighting here in Congress for them, and I ask my colleagues 
to join me.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to proceed for an additional 
minute.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Aderholt). The Chair is unable to 
recognize that request.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Sisisky) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SISISKY. Mr. Speaker, I commend my friend, Congresswoman Clayton, 
for taking time to discuss these terrible floods.
  I saw her on television with the President when they visited some of 
the devastated areas in North Carolina.
  Late last week, I visited southeast Virginia with our Governor, where 
we witnessed identical devastation.
  I have to confess, I've never seen anything like it. To be faced with 
back-to-back drought and flood is simply overwhelming.
  But our job is to see that these rural areas, communities, families, 
and businesses are not overwhelmed.
  That is going to be a very big job.
  Most of the rivers in and along my district are either right at flood 
stage or significantly over.
  The upper Nottaway River was just below flood stage at Rawlings.
  But by the time it got to the town of Stony Creek, 25 miles away, it 
was twelve feet above flood stage.
  West of Petersburg, in Matoaca, the Appomattox was holding steady 
right at flood stage.
  The Meherrin River was right at flood stage in Lawrenceville, but 
over two feet above flood stage by the time it got to Emporia.
  I think most of you have seen news reports from Franklin, in the 
center of my district, where the Blackwater River crested about sixteen 
feet over flood stage and left most of the city completely under water.
  And the effects of this flood have hurt communities like Portsmouth 
in ways that defy description.
  Thankfully, the water is back on, and the same goes for communities 
in the Petersburg area.
  With all this flood water spilling into water treatment facilities, 
not only were we warned to boil water, Portsmouth was warned to not 
drink the water even if it was boiled.
  I think all of you know, it's one thing to lose electricity. That's 
bad enough.
  But it's a whole different animal to lose your water over an extended 
period of time.
  And in addition to electricity and water, we lost many major 
highways. Well over two hundred roads, along with interstates, were 
closed across southside Virginia.
  And they stayed that way over the weekend as we waited for rivers and 
streams to crest, and then subside, so crews could remove debris.
  Interstates 64 and 95 were closed, preventing travel to Hampton Roads 
and North Carolina.
  The major highway across my district, U.S. 460, was under several 
feet of water in several locations.
  Interstate 264 was open around Portsmouth, but with some ramps closed 
due to flood water.
  Even highways that are open, like U.S. Routes 13 and 17, were closed 
at the Carolina border.
  And in counties and communities where you can at least get around: 
Suffolk, Surry, Sussex, Southampton and Greensville, traffic was 
limited so cleanup crews could get in to make essential repairs.
  Many streets in Chesapeake are still flooded.
  I'm not going to belabor this any more--but as of today, the Internet 
list of closed roads is five pages long.
  On top of that, we've got phone systems out and simply can't always 
call, even to check on loved ones.
  That brings me to one thing I've got to say: Thank you and God bless 
all the emergency workers, from the Federal Emergency Management Agency 
folks and other Federal employees, to the State agencies, especially 
the National Guard--from the logistics operations to the helicopter 
pilots, and the VA Department of Transportation, to the local sheriffs 
and police and fire departments and rescue squads.
  And I would also be remiss not to mention Red Cross and the hundreds 
of volunteers working with them and similar organizations.
  I'm afraid we sometimes take these people for granted, but I doubt 
that anyone in Southside or North Carolina will ever make that mistake 
again.
  Mr. Speaker, if the rain ever stops, we'll need to think about the 
future.
  Drying out and restoring homes and communities will take time and a 
lot of hard work.
  If the Federal, State and local partnership we've seen in the face of 
this emergency continues over the long term, we'll be in good shape.
  One thing we need to do is make sure that in addition to the 
families, homeowners and businesses in our cities and towns, we 
remember the devastation this inflicts on rural areas and farmers and 
agribusiness.
  It is my understanding that a Presidential Disaster Declaration 
carries far more weight than a Secretarial Declaration.
  And I'm talking USDA, not FEMA.
  I have already contacted the White House to request that areas 
affected by these floods receive all Federal assistance possible.
  If that means we need a full-scale Presidential Disaster Declaration 
from USDA, that's what I want.
  After the President went down there yesterday, I'm sure they would 
have done that anyway.
  But this thing is just so big, so unbelievable, we need to do all we 
can to help these people get back on their feet.
  As I said, this will take a lot of work over a long period of time, 
but now is the time to begin.

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