[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 123 (Monday, October 4, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10291-S10292]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    AFTERMATH OF FLORIDA HURRICANES

  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I want to give a report to the 
Senate on the aftermath of our State having been hit by four hurricanes 
and the recovery efforts that are coming along, and, since the Senate 
is planning to recess at the end of this week for some number of weeks 
until after the election, when we will come back in a lameduck session, 
it is all the more important that we get appropriated the $10.2 billion 
that has been requested by the White House for emergency hurricane 
relief so that all of this emergency relief that is going on can 
continue.
  That is what I want to report to the Senate, having been in Florida 
this weekend, having been with the volunteers, with FEMA, with the 
State people, and with the local governments. It is amazing how 
everybody is pitching in and working together. Yet the hard reality of 
some parts of our State having been hit by three hurricanes, and 
especially along the Middle Eastern coast, what is called the treasure 
coast of Florida, having been hit at almost identically the same place 
by two major hurricanes, having winds sustained at 120 miles per hour 
when it hit the coast, with gusts up to 135 miles an hour, naturally 
people are reeling, they are tired and, in some cases, their patience 
is running out.
  For example, in several mobile home parks I visited this weekend, 
there are people who cannot inhabit their home. The home is literally 
destroyed. So where are they staying? Some people are literally staying 
in tents in their front yards because the temporary housing that is 
supplied by FEMA is being delayed in the delivery. Once the temporary 
house is delivered, and it is usually in the form of a small trailer, 
it is set up usually in the driveway of the home so the homeowner can 
oversee the complete dismantling of the destroyed home and its removal, 
or the rebuilding and repair of the home if it is salvageable. In many 
other cases, people are staying with friends or with family, but they 
are being delayed in the process of rebuilding their lives until FEMA 
gets in the trailers.
  I was told in one place that was hard hit--it is in south Brevard 
County, right at the Brevard County-Indian County river line, near the 
Sebastian River. It is a huge mobile home park called Barefoot Bay. 
Brevard County is my home county. One can image what 120-mile-an-hour 
winds do to a bunch of mobile homes. Let me tell you what it did. One 
could surely see the difference between the mobile homes constructed 
after the new standards imposed after the monster hurricane, Hurricane 
Andrew, hit Florida 12 years ago, and one can see what 120-mile-an-hour 
winds do to a mobile home that was not built according to those 
standards.
  The little pieces of wood that form the ceiling of a mobile home are 
not very thick or wide. Does anyone think those old construction 
standards for mobile homes, with a little piece of wood that is a truss 
for a roof, is going to withstand 120-mile-an-hour winds whipping 
around when the ceiling is not very thick or very wide? It did exactly 
what one would expect--it absolutely ripped them up.
  Another one of the lessons we are learning is that the new building 
codes are working. As I flew in helicopters across the barrier islands, 
when that wall of water came, as well as the 145-mile-an-hour winds on 
the first hurricane, Hurricane Charley, from that Army National Guard 
helicopter looking down at the barrier islands, one could clearly see 
what was constructed according to the new building codes because it was 
standing and relatively intact and what was old construction because it 
was history.

  That scene was replicated after the third hurricane, Hurricane Ivan, 
that hit the barrier island up in Pensacola beach. It was the same 
scene out of the window of an Army National Guard helicopter: The new 
building codes are working.
  My message to the Senate, my plea, my begging is that by the end of 
this week when we leave Washington, we have to have passed at the bare 
minimum the $10.2 billion request which is

[[Page S10292]]

not only for FEMA and all of the personal loans and grants, the Small 
Business Administration low-interest loans so people can rebuild their 
lives as well as their businesses, but also the money that will go to 
our military bases to repair the devastation that has occurred at the 
Kennedy Space Center with NASA. All of that is in this money, and we 
have to be able to rebuild our lives in Florida for the sake of people 
and for the sake of this country.
  There is something FEMA can do, in addition to getting the temporary 
housing people are impatiently waiting for. FEMA can also address a 
chronic problem that does not happen just after one hurricane but gets 
magnified after multiple hurricanes within a 6-week period, and that is 
the accumulation of debris.
  As I traveled through the mobile home park of Bombay Estates, it was 
because people from the Mormon Church came there over the weekend to 
clean up that debris and stack it in areas so those people could get 
back to their lives. The Red Cross, the Salvation Army--all of these 
private organizations are doing such a tremendous job, and yet FEMA is 
taking the position that it will not reimburse local governments for 
picking up debris unless the debris is on public right of way. That 
defies reality in Florida.
  In Florida, we have many huge senior citizen complexes where the 
roads in them are private roads, and yet they are still citizens, they 
are still part of the community, and the debris is accumulating, and 
FEMA says it will not pay for the pickup of that debris.
  Who is going to pay for it? That is part of what FEMA's disaster 
relief is for. Is the local government to pay for it? The little cities 
and towns cannot afford all of that expense. So what are they going to 
do? Assess a fee on all of the senior citizens in this huge senior 
citizen residential complex?
  On fixed incomes, the senior citizens cannot afford it. Yet FEMA is 
taking the position that they will not pay for the pickup of the 
debris, but it is not a legitimate position.
  Listen to what section 206.224 of the Code of Federal Regulations 
states. It states that FEMA may provide assistance to remove debris 
from privately owned lands and waters when it is in the public 
interest.
  What is in the public interest? It is in the public interest to 
eliminate a threat to public health and safety.
  How many canals and water reservoirs did I see littered with debris? 
If that debris is not picked up, it becomes a hazard for all kinds of 
pestilence, not even to speak of the danger. As I went through some of 
that debris yesterday, a lot of those carports in the mobile home parks 
were just twisted and flung by 120-mile-an-hour winds. They have sharp 
edges by which people can get really hurt.
  So I hope we do not have to direct FEMA to do this by putting 
language in the Department of Homeland Security funding bill on FEMA's 
particular funding. We should not have to do that. FEMA has the 
authority already. It is just an interpretation of the law, and I think 
this is clearly a case, in the interest of the public safety and 
welfare, that FEMA should recognize this is not one hurricane but this 
is four hurricanes within 6 weeks in one State. That is my plea to the 
Senate, to the House of Representatives, and especially to FEMA.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. REID. How much time does the minority have remaining in morning 
business?
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The minority has 7 minutes 
remaining.

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