[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 100 (Wednesday, July 9, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H6352]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              URGING PRESIDENT TO PROVIDE FLOOD ASSISTANCE

  (Mr. PENCE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, last night the Wabash River crested at 25 
feet in northeastern Indiana, but thanks to the extraordinary 
leadership of Mayor Ted Ellis and Sheriff Barry Story, Bluffton, 
Indiana, was spared a catastrophe. Their leadership and cooperation 
with Governor Frank O'Bannon and literally thousands of volunteers in 
Wells and Adams counties managed to stem the tide.
  Special commendation to Irving Material, Incorporated, and also to 
the 2nd of the 152nd Mech out of Muncie, Indiana, under the leadership 
of General Bushkirk and Colonel Shato who led the troops, nearly 200 in 
number, in loading sandbags and stacking sandbags and saving the 
community of Bluffton, Indiana.
  As more rain approaches, I urge the President to speed disaster 
relief to the counties in Indiana that the Governor has requested. I 
encourage the volunteers for their determination to move forward as the 
rain approaches, and I urge prayers by all of our citizens to remember 
the Psalmist wrote that God is our refuge and our strength. Though the 
Earth be removed, though its waters roar and be troubled, we will not 
fear.

                          ____________________