[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 134 (Wednesday, September 7, 2016)]
[House]
[Page H5106]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1100
                            LOUISIANA UPDATE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Louisiana (Mr. Graves) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GRAVES of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to give an update 
from home. I represent south Louisiana. A few weeks ago, we had a 
rainfall event that has been categorized as a 1,000-year storm.
  Mr. Speaker, in some areas of south Louisiana we received 31 inches 
of rain. To put that in perspective, that would take 5 years for the 
city of Bakersfield, California, to achieve that number. That would 
take 10 years for the city of Yuma, Arizona, to receive that level of 
rain. For those Americans that haven't realized they can live in the 
pleasure of the subtropics and you live up north, to translate that to 
snowfall, that is the equivalent of a 25-foot snowstorm; a storm that 
leaves 25 feet of snow. This is categorized, again, as a 1,000-year 
event: 31 inches of rain in, in some cases, as short as perhaps 36 
hours.
  Mr. Speaker, we have areas that have never, ever flooded, never seen 
water, never retained or held water in any way, shape, or form, that 
dealt with several feet of water in their homes and businesses. In 
Livingston Parish, Louisiana, it is estimated that 86 percent of the 
homes and 91 percent of the businesses were flooded. This has been a 
devastating event for many folks in our community.
  Mr. Speaker, as we move forward, certainly the Stafford Act, the 
Federal disaster law, has a role in helping our communities to recover. 
But what happened when this storm first came about and the flooding 
began is that it wasn't the Stafford Act or FEMA that came to the 
rescue. It was our neighbors, it was our community, many of which were 
flooded themselves. They got their own boats and went out and rescued 
folks and rescued their neighbors to the tune of thousands and 
thousands of people rescued by what we deem the Cajun Navy. I had a 
chance to go out there in my own kayak and paddle board and rescue 
dozens of folks that were trapped in their homes.
  Mr. Speaker, it didn't stop there. When shelters weren't open and 
weren't available, Cajun Navy shelters opened up. People just opened up 
their own homes and businesses to shelter those that were homeless. We 
had Cajun Navy chefs, many of which just for the first time deemed or 
designated themselves chefs, that cooked tens of thousands of meals not 
for compensation or because they were told to do so. They did it 
because we had friends and neighbors that were hungry and that were 
homeless. So we cooked for those folks.
  And it didn't stop there. We had a cadre of folks that we deemed the 
Cajun Army that have come together and helped to gut and de-muck 
thousands and thousands of homes across south Louisiana, again, Mr. 
Speaker, not because they were compelled to do so by any requirement or 
compensation. They were compelled to do so out of their selflessness, 
out of their generosity, and out of their hospitality.
  Mr. Speaker, we are now at a point to where the volunteerism, the 
hospitality, the generosity of our community is going to be exceeded. 
The needs are going to be greater than we can volunteer ourselves out 
of. We have thousands and thousands of homeowners across south 
Louisiana that are facing this scenario. They have a home that may be 
worth $200,000 but, because it was flooded and is entirely gutted now, 
it may be worth just half that. They may have a mortgage balance that 
is in excess of the value of the home, which means they are upside down 
in their mortgage.
  But that is not all. They have lost both of their cars, adding tens 
of thousands of dollars to the equation. They have to rebuild their 
home, which adds tens or maybe even six figures of liability. They have 
to replace their clothes, their wardrobe. And in some cases, their 
employers are under water; therefore, they don't even have a way of 
making money.
  Mr. Speaker, we are not a community that sits around and asks for a 
handout. That is not what we do. But in this case, I will say it again: 
as generous, as hospitable, as selfless as our community has been, we 
are now at a point to where we are unable to address the needs. Again, 
the Stafford Act works in most disasters. This one is an anomaly. This 
is an extraordinary disaster.
  I am looking forward to working with colleagues on both sides of the 
aisle moving forward on tailoring a recovery package for this region. 
This is estimated or projected to be the fourth most costly flood event 
in U.S. history. It is an extraordinary event that, unfortunately, has 
not received the national media attention that most disasters of this 
nature would.
  Disasters are awful. At some point, everyone in this country is going 
to experience some type of disaster--a flood, a tornado, a hurricane, 
an earthquake, a terrorist attack, or something else. When you have 
these catastrophic events, it is time for us to come together as a 
Nation to offer a helping hand. I am looking forward, again, to working 
with colleagues across the country to do that.

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