[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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