[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 116 (Thursday, September 15, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10068-S10069]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           HURRICANE KATRINA

  Mr. MARTINEZ. Mr. President, it has been 3 weeks since Hurricane 
Katrina came ashore bringing with her a wide swath of damage. Her winds 
whipped structures to devastation, her rains destroyed thousands of 
agricultural crops, and, sadly, the force of this storm resulted in 
death.
  While I rise to speak of Hurricane Katrina, I do want to focus my 
remarks on the devastation this storm brought to the State of Florida. 
We all know of the devastation on the Gulf Coast States of Alabama, 
Mississippi, and Louisiana. Before that, Katrina paid a costly and 
deadly visit to the State of Florida. Florida suffered 14 deaths and 
over $1 billion in damages.
  The Governor declared a state of emergency and evacuations took 
place. As you may recall, last year, Florida was visited by four 
serious hurricanes. By the time Katrina hit, we already had received 
over 150 percent of the normal rainfall for the year. And more rain 
brought about a substantial amount of flooding.
  Before Katrina came to Florida, we had been visited by, as I said, 
four hurricanes last year. Over 10 percent of Florida's homes were 
damaged. The storm displaced tens of thousands of people into shelters, 
and today over 20,000 Floridians are still living in some form of 
transitional housing.
  The backlog of roof repair is so severe that we are sending our 
children to schools that are developing mold problems. Whole sectors of 
our agricultural industry are devastated. Frankly, it will take years 
to replant and renourish those crops.
  I wish to take a few moments to mention that even though the people 
of my State are still recovering from the effects of Katrina and Dennis 
and Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne--even though folks are still 
living in trailers outside of their homes that have blue tarps on their 
roofs, Floridians are proudly pitching in to help the people of the 
gulf coast region.
  Sarasota, FL, is sending teams of 140 trained Red Cross volunteers in 
2-week cycles and in some cases longer than that. These volunteers are 
headed to the very areas where evacuees are streaming out. There is no 
power, no clean water, no hot showers. They are bringing evacuees back 
with them to Sarasota County--over 300 so far.
  Early this week, I had occasion to visit the Red Cross center in 
Orlando. Over 200 people are volunteering their services there, as 
hundreds and expected thousands of evacuees are coming into that 
central Florida area, where they are finding that the hotel industry 
has made arrangements for them to receive temporary housing in the area 
of many hotels, and, at the same time, the community is pouring out 
their love and their care in helping find jobs and dealing with issues 
of physical as well as mental health, as well as incorporating children 
into the school system.
  The Tampa Incident Management Group has sent 22 members to Hancock 
County, MS, where they have worked

[[Page S10069]]

16-hour days for 7 days. The group included emergency management 
personnel, firefighters, logistical support, public information 
officers, police, and crisis counselors. One of the members of the 
Hardee County EOC, Mr. Richard Shepard, says he felt a responsibility 
to go to Mississippi because he needed to give something back for all 
the help he had received last year.
  The South Florida Urban Search and Rescue Team, comprised of 80 
firefighters from agencies throughout Miami-Dade and Broward Counties, 
returned home after spending nearly 2 weeks helping Hurricane Katrina 
victims in the gulf coast.
  A group of Bascom Palmer Eye Institute ophthalmologists is heading to 
Baton Rouge this week aboard the institute's 40-foot Vision Van to 
treat displaced victims of Hurricane Katrina who have lost eyeglasses 
and suffered other vision problems because of the storm.
  The Panama City Boatmen's Association sent a three-truck convoy to 
Louisiana and Mississippi. Among the supplies: 150 cases of water, 80 
cases of Gatorade, and 10 large bags of dog and cat food because the 
evacuees said they had something to eat, but their pets were literally 
starving.
  Similar stories can be heard from throughout the State of Florida. 
Members of our Armed Forces and our National Guard have also answered 
the call and sought to help. But I want to particularly talk about a 
Florida resident and Navy pilot. LT J.G. Bale Dalton is a member of 
Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 21--the Blackjack Squadron out of 
San Diego. When the call came through that hurricane relief was needed, 
his squadron flew helicopters across the country in order to be there 
in time for them to help. Now his father, who is my dear and long-time 
friend--currently my general counsel--Skip Dalton, has allowed me to 
read a little bit from his communications in those first few frantic 
days.

  Writes LT J.G. Bale Dalton, on September 3:

       My first flight into New Orleans was incredibly hectic. We 
     went due east from Pensacola, so I was not able to see any of 
     the Mississippi coast. The scene was chaos. Hardly anyone was 
     able to get into the city on the ground, and the water was 
     still rising. Helicopters from all services and even 
     civilians were operating in the area, rescuing people and 
     bringing food and supplies to rally points.
       An airborne command and control element P-3 was tasking 
     airplanes as fast as they could, but most often they were not 
     able to give more than a GPS coordinate and a ``good luck.''

  Another entry from September 3:

       We were sent to a nursing home to remove what we thought 
     were invalid older people. What we found was a small island 
     of land with a field large enough to land three helicopters 
     around what used to be a nursing home. We moved approximately 
     50 people--all families that were directed by New Orleans 
     police to that spot.

  September 4:

       No rest for the weary. After returning to work with about 
     five hours of rest (not sleep, just time from landing to 
     briefing again) we again began to build a picture of what was 
     going on.
       People that had been stranded since the day the storm hit 
     were beginning to come out of the woodwork. It was obvious 
     that the first priority was to save people from the rising 
     tides.
       I went back into New Orleans later that day with a mission 
     to find fire buckets and begin putting out fires.

       Here is another entry from later that day:

       We attempted to hoist people from an apartment complex into 
     our helicopter, but were refused when they saw an ambulance a 
     few blocks away that they were going to try to swim to.
       Hard to understand for me, but I am sure the thought of 
     being hoisted up on a wire to a helicopter is a scary 
     prospect for most people. We moved from that area to an 
     affected area in the northern part of the city to begin 
     evacuating another group of people gathered by the police. We 
     landed on a tennis court to get these people. They had not 
     had food or water for five days.

  I could go on and on with stories of Floridians helping out in the 
gulf coast, providing relief, aid, assistance, and, as you heard in the 
case of Navy LT J.G. Bale Dalton, rescuing people from the rising 
tides. But dramatic as these stories are, they are not unusual. This is 
what America is all about. If there is a need, Americans are there to 
help.
  Given the impact of the stories and images of the devastation, I 
understand how our hearts and minds are turned to these current 
problems. But I am humbly here to ask that we simply do not overlook 
the fact that there has been a lot of suffering in Florida, that we, 
too, have suffered significant losses as a result of four very 
difficult hurricanes last year--an unprecedented number of major 
hurricanes to hit, crisscrossing the State of Florida--only to be 
revisited again by Hurricanes Dennis and Katrina this year. The extent 
of hurricane damage from last year was severe. In fact, we continue to 
try to dig out from under it.
  Affordable long-term housing is one of the serious problems we are 
facing in Florida not only because of so much housing stock, 
particularly the affordable type, that was damaged last year, but now 
with the influx of evacuees into the State, some real long-term 
problems are beginning to present themselves. I have contacted the 
President and Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns. I have talked with 
FEMA and my colleagues in the Senate. We have received some measure of 
assistance, but we must continue to look forward to the time when all 
Floridians will be made whole and when life will begin to be normal 
again for all Floridians.
  Katrina did pay us a devastating visit in the early part of that 
storm. So while we continue to pour our hearts out to those in the gulf 
coast, I do have to hope that the people of Florida will not be 
forgotten, as we seek to make all of the necessary decisions for the 
relief and recovery not only short term and medium term, but where 
Florida is now in the long term, when the needs of long-term housing, 
the needs of long-term health care problems, the needs of 
reconstruction of public facilities, such as schools, become all the 
more necessary.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.

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