[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 130 (Tuesday, September 6, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5321-S5322]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            HURRICANE IRENE

  Mr. SANDERS. Madam President, as I suspect you know, Vermont has been 
hit very hard by Hurricane Irene. The storm caused widespread flooding, 
resulting in a number of deaths, the loss of many homes and businesses, 
and hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to property and 
infrastructure.
  I have visited many of the most hard-hit towns in the past week, 
including Ludlow, Wilmington, Brattleboro, Berlin, Moretown, and 
Waterbury. I was shocked and moved by the extent of the damage I 
saw. Many towns still have very limited access because the roads and 
bridges that link them to the world have been destroyed. This disaster 
will go down in history as one of the very worst natural disasters in 
the history of the State of Vermont.

  Let me take this opportunity to personally thank the emergency rescue 
teams and all those aiding the victims of the floods for their 
outstanding work. Local crews, along with the Vermont National Guard, 
and Guard units from other States, such as New Hampshire, Maine, and 
Illinois, have airline-lifted food, water, blankets, and medicine to 
the worst hit towns. Police, fire, and local officials have also done 
an extraordinary job.
  We still don't know the cost of this disaster--it probably will not 
be tabulated for a while--but let me share a few figures in terms of 
what we have experienced. Just days after the declaration of a major 
disaster by the President, more than 2,000 Vermonters had already 
registered with FEMA--2,000. To date, there have been more than 700 
homes confirmed as severely damaged or destroyed.
  I had the opportunity to go to some trailer parks in Berlin, in 
central Vermont, and I was down in the southern part of the State in 
Brattleboro and it is an incredibly sad sight to see. Mobile homes, 
where senior citizens were living, have been destroyed. They are now 
forced to relocate. It was a very tragic circumstance.
  Further, the storm has knocked out 135 segments of the State highway 
system, as well as 35 State bridges, completely isolating 13 
communities for several days. An unknown number of farms and businesses 
have been destroyed.
  I was down in Wilmington, a beautiful town in the southern part of 
the State on Route 9. Virtually their entire downtown business 
community has been severely damaged, and that is clearly undermining 
the fabric not only of the economy of that town but of towns throughout 
the State.
  Our Amtrak and freight rail services were completely suspended as 
tracks literally washed into rivers. So we had tracks underwater. The 
State's largest office complex is located in Waterbury, VT, a few miles 
from our capital, Montpelier, and I visited that facility. It had been 
completely flooded. There are 1,700 people who work there. For a small 
State, that is a lot of people--1,700 people--who work in our major 
office complex in Waterbury. That has now been shut down for an 
indefinite period of time. That impacts, obviously, the State's ability 
to provide services to the people of Vermont.
  At least 65 public schools were impacted and could not open on time. 
School is just beginning, with 65 public schools not able to open on 
time. This is just a short list of some of the devastation that is 
going on in the State.
  I also want to call to the attention of the Senate another 
extraordinary tragedy in our State, and that is the death of a 
gentleman named Michael Garafano. Mr. Garafano was an employee of the 
city of Rutland, and Rutland was very hard hit by this disaster. He and 
his son went up to a local dam to inspect the condition of the dam. 
They were hit by a flash flood and both of them lost their lives. So 
here we have an extraordinary public servant, trying to protect the 
well-being of the people of Rutland, and he gave his life in that 
effort. Mr. Garafano's effort will never be forgotten.
  As we go forward--not just for Vermont but for New Jersey, for North 
Carolina, and we know upstate New York was also hard hit--I have every 
confidence the Senate and the House will do for Hurricane Irene as we 
have done for other natural disasters that have impacted different 
parts of our country, and I look forward to working with my colleagues 
to make sure, as Americans, we rebuild the communities in Vermont and 
in other sections of the country that were devastated by this terrible 
flood.

[[Page S5322]]

  I thank the Chair, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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