[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 108 (Friday, September 2, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H7642]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  HELPING VICTIMS OF HURRICANE KATRINA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Gordon) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GORDON. Mr. Speaker, like so many families, my family has been 
watching the horrible scenes that we see from Mississippi and 
Louisiana, and really every day my wife, Leslie, and I talk about how 
lucky we are and talk about how really the trivial problems in our life 
are just that, trivial, compared to what is going on elsewhere.
  Last night, I told her a story that I had not thought about in a long 
time, that was, that back in 1969, it was August of 1969, three friends 
of mine from school, Jim Caperton, Doug Young and Sammy Sells, we went 
down to Jackson, Mississippi, for a school program; and we were there 
when Hurricane Camille struck the coast. Some National Guard came to 
our meeting and said, Would any of you volunteer to go down and help 
clean up after Hurricane Camille?
  Well, Doug and Jim and Sammy and I decided we would do that. We 
wanted to help, and we also thought it would be an adventure. So we got 
in the back of the National Guard truck and started heading down to the 
coast. As we drove down there, there was just a steady stream of cars 
and trucks and buses coming the other way. So many folks had all the 
goods that they could salvage tied down to their car and were coming 
this way.
  Then when we got there, it was shocking. I had seen what a tornado 
could do in my hometown of Murphysboro to a house, and I had seen how 
it was torn up. But at that time, what you found is that the hurricane 
would send in these massive tides. They would tear down anything in 
their way and then take it all back out to sea, and it was like it had 
never been there before, and all you might see would be maybe some 
brick steps here and there to a home. It was, as I say, shocking.
  The first thing that we were asked to do was to hand out food and 
water to some of the survivors there. It was, again, shocking to see 
the desperation on their faces, the unbelievableness of what was 
happening to them.
  It really reminds me, there was an old blues song that said something 
to the effect that the only thing that I own is what is on my back, and 
I have been wearing those clothes for the last 4 days. That was really 
the situation of all these people at that time.
  Then they took us over to a dorm late that night, or what seemed to 
be a dorm, there was no electricity or water and all the windows were 
all blown out, and we swept the glass out, turned over the mattresses 
and fell asleep in an exhaustive state and got up the next day.
  The next day our job was to sort through clothes that had been 
shipped from all over the country. We would separate them into women's 
clothes and men's clothes and different sizes, and we handed out those 
clothes again to people that were lined up in the only clothes that 
they had for quite some time.
  So my wife, Leslie, last night was telling me, we have a four-year-
old daughter, her name is Payton, and like all little girls, she has 
outgrown a lot of her clothes. I have been trying to get my wife to 
donate them to the church so that someone would get some good use out 
of them, but Leslie feels like sort of giving up those clothes is like 
giving up those early years of our daughter's life. But last night she 
said, You know, we need to box these clothes up and send them to 
Mississippi and to Louisiana. So that is what we are doing.
  Then I called my mother and I talked with her, and she told me the 
story that she has told me a lot of times in the past. When she was a 
little girl, their house burned; and when their house burned, they lost 
everything. Back then, when you lived out in the country and your house 
burned, you did not have insurance. All you had was your neighbors and 
friends and whatever generosity that they might provide. So now I think 
that really we really are the neighbors and friends of these desperate 
folks down in Louisiana and Mississippi, and we all need to try to find 
a way to help them.
  I hope I can help you to help them. For the ones of you that live in 
the Sixth Congressional District in Tennessee, you can get on my Web 
site, www.house.gov/bart, and we will give you a list of organizations 
and ways to help. If you do not live in the Sixth District of 
Tennessee, then the Federal Government has set up a Web site, it is 
www.firstgov.gov, and that is the way that you can help.
  I think by helping, it makes all of us feel that in some way we are 
trying to relieve this horrible pain that other folks are going 
through. They are our neighbors, and we need to help. Here is how you 
can do it.

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