[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 15 (Friday, February 15, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E179]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      TRIBUTE TO KANSAS CITIANS' RESPONSE TO OUR RECENT ICE STORM

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. DENNIS MOORE

                               of kansas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 14, 2002

  Mr. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, we rise today to pay tribute to the thousands 
of Kansas City-area residents who over the past two weeks rose to the 
challenge posed by the worst ice storm to hit the Kansas City 
metropolitan area in decades.
  The storm, which struck our area with unprecedented fury on January 
29th and 30th, cut electric power to over 450,000 area residents and 
caused more than $50 million in damage in Missouri and approximately 
$47 million plus worth of damage in Kansas. Seven deaths were 
attributed to the storm.
  As the Kansas City Star described it, the storm ``blasted through 
[and] left most of the metropolitan area a dangerous tangle of downed 
trees, felled power lines and snarled traffic . . . During an intense 
12 hours, from 7 p.m. Wednesday to 7 a.m. Thursday, [for example,] 
Johnson County emergency dispatchers took 420 calls, mostly from people 
reporting tree limbs pulling down overhead lines. The Kansas City Fire 
Department dispatchers took 1,100 emergency calls in a 12-hour period; 
ordinarily they receive 1,400 in a month.''
  Mr. Speaker, our constituents dealt heroically with this unexpected 
calamity and we want to take special note of the outstanding 
contributions made by those whose job it was to respond to this crisis: 
police, firefighters, 911 operators, KCI airport employees, and members 
of the Missouri and Kansas National Guard, to note just some of them.
  Medical teams dealt with cases of carbon monoxide poisoning, 
exposure, and injuries due to falling tree limbs and falls on ice. 
Homeless shelters opened their doors to neighbors left without heat and 
electricity and church groups, the Salvation Army, the Red Cross and 
municipal emergency services worked overtime and went the extra mile to 
help those in need during this time of crisis. Countless community 
volunteers including AmeriCorps, the Boy Scouts, and United Way gave 
their time to assist in the recovery process. Whether you were in 
Rosedale or Brookside, Independence or Overland Park, the ``Kansas City 
Spirit'' was prevalent with neighbors helping neighbors to cope with 
the devastation.
  Most notably, hundreds of repair crews from area utilities--including 
Kansas City Power and Light, Missouri Public Service, the Kansas City, 
Kansas, Board of Public Utilities, Independence Power and Light, Westar 
Energy, and SBC--worked around the clock, along with 400 out-of-state 
repair crews and 350 out-of-state tree trimming crews, to replace 
lines, repair blown fuses and clear ice-laden trees that had cut off 
power lines and created fire and injury hazards. In fact, it is 
estimated that of the 450,000 trees that line Kansas City's streets, 10 
percent of them will be gone when the cleanup is complete and over 10 
percent of the city's privately owned trees also will have perished. To 
these utility workers, the people of the Kansas City area owe a special 
debt of gratitude.
  We also applaud the leadership of our Governors Bill Graves of Kansas 
and Bob Holden of Missouri along with the countless local elected 
officials who worked in tandem with state and federal emergency 
management officials in compiling the damage assessments so that our 
Governors could request the Federal Emergency Disaster Declaration. The 
President and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) acted quickly 
to start the process of bringing federal relief to our community so 
that now the full recovery can occur.
  Mr. Speaker, we have proven once again Kansas City truly is the 
heartland of America--when our friends and neighbors are in trouble, 
our community comes together to address the crisis and to get the 
necessary job done--quickly, efficiently and effectively. We have never 
been prouder to represent the Kansas City metropolitan area.

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