[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 51 (Tuesday, April 13, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2218-S2219]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         RHODE ISLAND FLOODING

  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. I rise to describe the catastrophic flood damage in 
my home State of Rhode Island and to ask all my colleagues, to appeal 
to my colleagues, for swift action to deliver to our families and 
businesses badly needed aid.
  Rhode Island saw more rain last month than any month on record: over 
16 inches, with over 5 inches of rain falling on March 30 alone. The 
devastation wrought by these storms exceeds anything in living memory.
  Meteorologists who have reviewed this are calling it the most 
damaging storm to hit the ``Ocean State'' since the Great September 
Gale of 1815, a monstrosity of a storm that tossed ships through the 
streets of Providence and carried out to sea the shops on Newport's 
Long Wharf.
  Rhode Island's floods of March 2010 could not have come at a worse 
time. They struck a Rhode Island already weakened by the worst 
recession we have seen since the Great Depression. Even before the 
recent flooding, unemployment in our State stood near 13 percent and 
homelessness was on the rise. We have already experienced 27 months of 
severe recession. For a year, we have been in the top three States for 
unemployment.
  It is too soon yet to estimate the full economic impact of the March 
flooding, but it is clear the flooding's economic damage will be 
prolonged and severe.
  The peak storm of March 30 and 31 brought commerce in the entire 
region to a halt. Route I-95, the main artery that connects the major 
cities of the New England and Middle Atlantic States, was closed for 2 
full days, flooded out, following a surge of the Pawtuxet River.
  The river, which has a flood level of 9 feet, crested at its alltime 
high, almost 21 feet on March 31. It is hard to overstate the 
importance of this highway to Rhode Island's economy because it is not 
only a regional artery, but it is the main commuter artery for our home 
State.
  Similarly, Amtrak's Northeast service was closed for 5 days due to 
flooding of the track in our State.
  This next picture shows the Warwick Mall. It is one of the largest 
shopping centers in the State. It was completely flooded following the 
unprecedented rainfall of March 30 and 31. You can see the top of a car 
right up to the hood. You can see the entry is completely flooded. 
There are thousands of Rhode Islanders who work at the mall, others use 
the mall, many have kiosks who sell within the mall. Suddenly, with 
very little warning, they are temporarily unemployed.
  I toured this complex with its owner, Aram Garabedian, just after the 
water had gone down. The water was only about an inch deep when we were 
there. You could still see--it says ``Food Court.'' You could still, in 
the food court, some of the flooding was vanilla and some of the 
flooding was chocolate because of the ice cream stores that had lost 
their power and melted into the flood.
  Mr. Garabedian and his workers are in the middle of a heroic job 
cleaning up, and they are determined to reopen as soon as possible. But 
it could be weeks or even months until all those stores are back in 
business. Those, of course, are weeks and months when families who 
depend on paychecks from this mall will need to survive on unemployment 
benefits; unemployment benefits, I might add, with which our friends on 
the other side are trying to interfere.

  Some store owners doubt whether they will be able to reopen at all. I 
recently held a telephone townhall during which a store owner named 
Kathleen told me about the damage to her store in the mall which had 
been in business for 25 years. Her payment counter and her register 
were destroyed. The drywall in her store was ruined. Little if any of 
the merchandise or fixtures appear to be salvageable. Kathleen's flood 
insurance company has claimed that her damage is not covered. She said 
if she doesn't receive some grant assistance from the government, she 
will not be able to reopen, after 25 years.
  We can see from this picture the scale of hardship that business 
owners are facing as they begin to clean up their stores. It is 
difficult to relay in a single speech the extent of the devastation 
wrought by the floodwaters. Flooding in places where, as I went around 
the State, the thing I heard more than anything else was: 35 years I 
have lived here, never even water in the basement, and now look at 
this.
  I wish to take a few more minutes to show some pictures that 
represent the damage. These were taken as I toured throughout the State 
in the immediate aftermath of the storms. This is the Natick pumping 
station which sits near a river bank in west Warwick. It is the sewage 
treatment plant overwhelmed by the floodwaters and largely submerged. 
The flooding crippled the station's ability to process sewage and 
caused essentially all of the untreated waste that would have gone 
through it to flow out into local waterways. This station was 
submerged. The Warwick sewage treatment plant was submerged, and 
Bristol's sewage treatment plant was also inundated. The Warwick 
treatment plant became really part of the river. It just flowed right 
through and across it. So for days Rhode Island's floodwaters were 
contaminated with raw sewage.
  On March 30, I visited Glen Rock Reservoir in south Kingstown with 
town manager Steve Alfred. As we can see, the reservoir has overflowed 
the banks of this dam and has washed out this section of Old Usquepaugh 
Road. This is a very typical photograph of the sort of road damage we 
are going to see from the flooding in Rhode Island. When we have water 
like that flowing as white water over a road, one can imagine what 
damage it does to the road. Our infrastructure requirements to rebuild 
from this are going to be very considerable.
  At the height of the rains, Providence Street, a main road in west 
Warwick, a small, largely working class, great Rhode Island town which 
was probably, per capita, hardest hit of any of the towns, its main 
street looked more like a river than a road. This picture shows local 
emergency workers out rescuing people who had been flooded into their 
homes and apartments, driving them through the street with a boat and a 
jet ski. It is not often

[[Page S2219]]

that one sees local emergency workers driving down the streets of Rhode 
Island towns on boats and jet skis, but that is what it took to get the 
residents out who had been trapped by the unprecedented floodwaters.
  The day after the rain subsided, the flooding was still substantial. 
This is the scene behind a local mechanic's shop on Elmwood Avenue in 
Cranston. As we can see, the garage building is almost entirely 
underwater. Nearby I was able to see cars and trailers for this 
mechanic's shop just under the surface. Later on when the water came 
down, I could see that under this were cars. The water is right over 
the roof of the cars and so they are not visible now, but what I 
thought was an empty parking lot was filled with cars. I went back and 
saw it later when the waters had gone down.
  Here is a different shot of Elmwood Avenue, looking across to an old 
mill complex filled up through the ground floor. The floodwaters are 
not only covering the road itself but the entire parking lot and into 
the mill building itself. The local residents obviously were distraught 
by this kind of damage. The bridge that is down below this, the 
Wellington Avenue bridge, thankfully, held against the pressure of the 
water rushing past and over it. But two other bridges in Coventry and 
North Providence were so damaged by the flow of the water past and over 
them, they have been condemned and have to be completely rebuilt.
  I went up to Cumberland to visit Mayor Dan McKee and to see some of 
the damage there. His first responders took us in this boat out to Hope 
Global, which is a company on the banks of the river. It is the 
Blackstone River this time, not the Pawtuxet. This river was the cradle 
of the Industrial Revolution. The famous Slater Mill in Rhode Island, a 
true spark that lit off America's Industrial Revolution, was a 
riverside mill that used the rivers for power. Historically, Rhode 
Island's working waterfront has been a riverfront where mills up and 
down the Blackstone, up and down the Pawtuxet, up and down other rivers 
took advantage of water power. Then, as we moved from water power to 
electric power, they stayed. But they stayed very vulnerable to the 
rivers. So from Hope Global down to Ashaway Line and Twine 
Manufacturing Company and Bradford Printing and Finishing, down near 
Westerly, the riverside businesses in Rhode Island were swamped and 
flooded.
  Now businesses that had existed for generations, that employed many 
hundreds in each plant, lie submerged and silent and out of work.
  One of the things that impressed me during the course of my visit was 
the resilience and courage shown by Rhode Islanders. We took this 
picture at the Okonite Company. It was also covered by the floodwaters, 
but it was nice to see both the American and the Rhode Island flags 
flying high, notwithstanding the devastation that surrounded them. This 
struck me as a fitting example of the perseverance and resilience of 
Rhode Islanders responding to this crisis. It is often true that trying 
times bring out the best in people. Certainly this flood brought out 
the best in many folks in Rhode Island.
  Everywhere I have traveled in the days since the floods began, I have 
seen neighbors helping neighbors, and I have witnessed the 
extraordinary diligence and courage of the municipal workers, the first 
responders, the police and fire folks, public works, literally all 
municipal employees who worked long hours, wet hours, cold hours, tired 
hours helping their communities.
  A couple in Westerly had to evacuate their home in 30 minutes as the 
floodwaters picked their house up off its foundation. Amazingly, after 
all they had been through, they were still more concerned for their 
neighbors than for themselves. They wrote to me:

       . . . as tough as things are for now, we see so many of our 
     neighbors that had no insurance and they lost everything. 
     Many of the people who were renting apartments were given 
     five minutes to evacuate. As we were leaving, we took all of 
     the food from our fridge and were able to distribute it to 
     some of the folks running for cover. Life seems to throw lots 
     of curveballs and you never anticipate when you get up in the 
     morning that you will be homeless by the afternoon but Mother 
     Nature has a mind much her own.

  I want to point out that the word on the Rhode Island State flag is 
``hope.'' As I look at this picture and see the flag flying high amidst 
the devastation from the flood below, I am reminded of countless acts 
of kindness and generosity, indeed hope, which have accompanied the 
troubling, sad, and difficult events of recent weeks. The flooding has 
destroyed homes, closed businesses, and ended jobs, but the people of 
Rhode Island have stood up remarkably well. Spirits are strong. But the 
job of rebuilding roads, bridges, sewage treatment plants, public 
facilities, homes, and businesses is a colossal and daunting task for a 
State 27 months into severe recession.
  Now we in Rhode Island need help from the Federal Government to 
fulfill that hope and to help us rebuild. Just as Congress was quick to 
respond in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and following the 
flooding in Iowa and North Dakota in 2008 and 2009, I ask my colleagues 
to work with my senior Senator, Jack Reed, and I to bring needed 
assistance to Rhode Island as quickly as possible.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Arizona.
  Mr. KYL. Madam President, may I be advised when I have spoken for 7 
minutes.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Yes.

                          ____________________