[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 82 (Monday, June 26, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Page S5778]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         STORMS IN NORTH DAKOTA

  Mr. DORGAN. Madam President, today Governor Schafer, from my State of 
North Dakota, has made a request of President Clinton in the form of a 
disaster declaration request as a result of substantial damage that has 
occurred in North Dakota from some huge storms that have rumbled across 
our State in recent weeks. About a week ago, late in the afternoon, in 
the Fargo-Moorhead region of North Dakota-Minnesota, huge thunderstorms 
rolled across the northern plains and dumped 7 to 8 inches of rain on 
that flat land in the Red River Valley in a matter of 8 hours--7 to 8 
inches of rain in 8 hours. This occurred only a week after some regions 
just 80 to 90 miles North of there received 17 to 18 inches of rain in 
a very short period of time: 24 to 36 hours. There was an enormous 
quantity of rain.
  These two storm events occurred in the Red River Valley, which is as 
flat as a table top. There is not a hill in sight. The result was 
dramatic sheet flooding in every direction. I recently took a tour of 
some affected regions in northeastern North Dakota--Grand Forks County 
and Walsh County and other areas, and small communities like Langdon, 
Mekinock, and a range of other communities. Communities in the region 
were hit with more moisture than anyone had ever seen in their lifetime 
in such a short period of time.
  As a result, flat fields were totally inundated with water. Roads and 
railroad lines were washed away. There was one area I traversed in 
which they had a box culvert that weighed about 2 to 3 tons. The force 
of the water--which, incidentally, totally inundated these fields--
washed out a 2-ton box culvert, and nobody could find it. It was gone. 
How does one lose a 2-ton box culvert? Yet it was gone.
  It is hard to imagine these flooding events unless one sees them 
personally. We have had two of them in two weeks in the eastern part of 
North Dakota, and they have been devastating. As a result, the Governor 
has made a disaster declaration request of the President, a request 
which I fully support and upon which I hope the President will act with 
dispatch this week. FEMA is continuing in both of these areas--
northeastern North Dakota and also the Fargo region--to do their damage 
assessments. Sufficient work has been done on the damage assessments 
for us to know we are going to require some Federal assistance.
  Some people say: Why is there Federal help available in the form of 
disaster assistance? Precisely because there are some events which 
occur--floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, fires, and so on--that are so 
large and so significant and cause so much damage that State and local 
governments cannot possibly deal with the resulting damage.
  That is why the rest of the country says: You have had some trouble, 
let us give you a helping hand. That is what happened during the 1997 
floods from the Red River in the Red River Valley which most everyone 
will remember. That is what happened with the Los Angeles earthquake. 
That is what happened when the Southern United States experienced 
substantial tornado and hurricane damage.
  We regret we have to come again with a request for disaster 
assistance, but we do. It is not of our making. It is an act of nature 
that is quite unusual. I have not, in all of my life, seen a 
circumstance where, in a period of 24 to 36 hours, we had 17 to 18 
inches of rainfall in a very small area. We are a semiarid State. We 
get 17 inches of rain in a year in North Dakota on average. Yet a week 
ago today, Fargo and Moorhead received 7 to 8 inches of rain in a 
matter of 8 hours and, as I said, 90 miles north of there, they 
received 17 to 18 inches in some parts in a matter of 24 to 36 hours. 
One can imagine the devastation that causes.
  We are trying to wrap up a supplemental appropriations bill probably 
by tomorrow evening. The hope is that it gets filed tomorrow evening. 
Both sides want to get it to the President for his signature by the end 
of this week. It will be attached to the military construction bill.
  I am working with my colleagues on the Appropriations Committee to 
make certain these flood events are mentioned in the context of that 
supplemental bill. I expect FEMA already has the resources with which 
to deal with this, if and when the President declares a disaster.
  I wanted to bring to my colleagues' attention the request the 
Governor of North Dakota has made. My expectation is the President will 
move quickly to respond to it, and my concern is that we do everything 
we can not only to deal with the issue of infrastructure damage to 
public buildings, and there is substantial damage in those areas--
roads, buildings, water and sewage systems--but also that we are able 
to be helpful to family farmers, many of whom have lost virtually all 
of their crops, crops they dutifully planted this spring with such 
great hope and now have been completely decimated by these sheet 
floods.
  My colleagues and I who come from this region of the country will 
continue to work on all of these issues. We are joined by our 
colleagues from the State of Minnesota because all this occurs on the 
North Dakota-Minnesota border.

                          ____________________