[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 148 (Wednesday, September 17, 2008)]
[House]
[Page H8382]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              REMEMBERING RECENT NATURAL DISASTERS IN IOWA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Braley) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BRALEY of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to remember that, in 
a time of widespread national disasters, it is important to remember 
those disasters that have already occurred this year and not forget the 
impact that they have had on people back in the great State of Iowa, 
which I am proud to represent in this body.
  For most of us, May 25th was the day before Memorial Day. It was the 
day of my son's high school open house from his graduation, and our 
biggest concern that day was how much rain we were going to get. But 
shortly after all of our guests left, I started following a news story 
that would have profound implications for me and the people I represent 
back in Iowa's First District.
  This wall cloud that is visible on the easel to my right was a wall 
cloud that brought a devastating EF-5 tornado to the citizens of 
Parkersburg, New Hartford, Dunkerton and Hazleton, killing eight 
people, causing widespread destruction in those communities and serious 
flooding in other parts of my district. And that was what transformed 
the summer of 2008 for many Iowans.

                              {time}  2030

  This wall cloud contained this powerful tornado and went right by one 
of my constituents' farms, that was Senator Charles Grassley, who lives 
near New Hartford, Iowa. The effects of this powerful tornado can be 
seen in this photograph, this overhead shot of Parkersburg, Iowa, where 
nearly one-third of homes and businesses in the south side of 
Parkersburg were destroyed.
  You can see here where the high school was destroyed. The folks in 
Parkersburg are very proud of the fact that four of the graduates of 
their high school, Aplington-Parkersburg, currently are starters in the 
National Football League, an extraordinary accomplishment for a town of 
less than 2,000 people. The widespread devastation as this EF-5 tornado 
went through Parkersburg will be felt for many years to come and 
illustrate the need for Federal emergency disaster assistance in times 
when people are at their most vulnerable.
  To give you a better view of how individuals were impacted, this 
photograph shows the widespread destruction that leveled, literally, 
every home, office, business and building in the swath of the tornado 
pass through. You can see that the trees are completely denuded of any 
vegetation. Here you see people that are working hard to clean up an 
area where one of the homes was destroyed near where two people were 
killed.
  I was very proud that when this disaster struck, my staff did a 
fantastic job of responding to the needs of every community wherever we 
could. This photograph shows me with my chain saw in front of one of 
the homes that was completely destroyed shortly after the tornado 
struck.
  This is the basement of the home that I was working on and a family 
whose entire home contents were completely destroyed by the tornado. I 
kept holding up things that I found in their basement and asking them 
if they wanted to save it, and they said, well, that's not ours. This 
is common.
  There were things that were found, that were taken out of Parkersburg 
during this tornado, in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, over 100 miles 
away.
  On the front edge of the tornado, the town of Lamont had 8 inches of 
rain in a 24-hour period that flooded the community and caused 
widespread destruction to their infrastructure, including this bridge, 
all within the week of Memorial Day.
  Then, as if that weren't enough, the week after Memorial Day, the 
town of New Hartford, which had been hit by this EF-5 tornado, was 
completely overwhelmed by flooding from Beaver Creek. The tragedy of 
these storms is that, as you can see in the background of downtown New 
Hartford, the hardware store has left town. The only convenience store, 
the Kwik Star, has left town and is no longer in business. The places 
where people went to get their basic necessities are being driven out 
by the implications of these storms.
  The town of Elkader, Iowa, up in Clayton County, which is one of the 
most scenic parts of my district, had a flood predicted at 20 feet for 
a 12-foot flood stage. The river crested at 31 feet and overwhelmed the 
community, destroyed the grocery store, flooded businesses and caused 
widespread destruction to homes in Elkader.
  Waverly, Iowa, in Bremer County, also suffered widespread damage due 
to the flooding. The same types of destruction can be seen in their 
downtown streets, which has enormous implications for infrastructure. 
Cedar Falls' utilities, completely overwhelmed by the flooding, and a 
railroad bridge in downtown Waterloo, where I live, will need to be 
replaced and has an enormous impact on the commerce at John Deere's 
Waterloo works.
  The disaster response that this Congress made was immediate and 
swift, $2.65 billion, but much more is needed to address the needs in 
the First District and the Second District and other parts of Iowa. 
It's time for Congress to act and pass a supplemental disaster 
assistance bill for all of the midwestern flooding and tornado victims 
and also addresses serious problems from Hurricane Ike and Gustav in 
our gulf coast.
  The response initially to this disaster from our Federal disaster 
agencies was very encouraging, but there has been a backlog in getting 
the funds that Congress has appropriated through the Federal agencies 
to the people in need in Iowa. The time to break that backlog is now.
  We need to start freeing up the Community Development Block Grant 
money so that it can have an impact in these communities that I have 
been showing you here tonight. We need to free up other small business 
loans and other funding that should be getting to the people in need in 
Iowa, including the people of Cedar Rapids, who were devastated with 
the highest flood that they have ever seen and has 400 square blocks of 
downtown Cedar Rapids where homes and businesses were destroyed and 
need to be rebuilt.
  That's why the crisis is now. The time to act is now. We need to take 
advantage of the widespread attention on people in need in this country 
and address their concerns.

                          ____________________