[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 43 (Monday, March 13, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1761-S1762]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Kansas Wildfires

  Mr. ROBERTS. Madam President, I rise today to speak about the 
historical and unprecedented wildfires that burned through southwest 
Kansas last week. We had fires in 21 of our Kansas counties, roughly 
one-fifth of our State. High winds and dry conditions caused fires of 
the highest classification that blazed across central and western 
Kansas some 30 to 40 feet high, burning more than 700,000 acres of 
land, making this the largest wildfire in our State's history. The 
Kansas Division of Emergency Management has said it could take weeks to 
determine the full extent of devastation from the fires. Clark County, 
KS, officials--that is the county that was the hardest hit--estimate a 
devastating loss of anywhere from 3,000 to 9,000 head of cattle. That 
is just in one county. As I indicated, Clark County was the hardest hit 
by the windblown fires, with over 85 percent of the land in the county 
consumed by these prairie fires. This is hundreds of thousands of acres 
in one county and over 700,000 in regard to our State.
  On Friday, I drove south from Dodge City, KS, through range and 
ranchland I didn't even recognize. What used to be gently rolling 
prairie, dotted with herds of cattle and crisscrossed by fencing, is 
now reduced to blackened dust. Friends of mine lost their ranch when a 
40-foot wall of fire roared out of the valley over the bluff and burned 
out their operation. We have unimaginable damage to land and property, 
but also heart-wrenching scenes of cattle and wildlife burned, wounded, 
and wandering.
  Many Kansans lost everything. According to Sheriff John Ketron of 
Clark County, 31 houses and over 440,000 acres were burned there. We 
have longtime friends there, John and Carol Swayze. We have known them 
for years. John said with tears in his eyes: ``Pat, it took me 43 years 
to build up this operation, and it took about an hour to take it all 
down.'' Riding with Sheriff Ketron, we were assessing the town of 
Ashland, where a volunteer firefighting force managed to save the town 
when it became surrounded in flames. Some volunteers were fighting 
fires elsewhere in the area and learned their own homes had been 
engulfed and lost.
  I met with brave people in the towns of Englewood and Ashland, KS, in 
the heart of Clark County, who had just come through frightening 
experiences fighting the unpredictable and unstoppable fires. Some were 
out driving cattle away from the fires and had become separated from 
loved ones. When the flames turned, they were left to pray for their 
safety.
  Kylene Scott, with the High Plains Journal, calls it ``the worst day 
of her life.'' She wrote a courageous and honest account of the day. I 
will read her words now:

       I think I had them going the right way, then the wind 
     switched. Now I just don't know. When I heard the crack in my 
     husband's voice yesterday afternoon, I knew it was bad. He is 
     normally the calm, cool, collected one.
       A family friend alerted him to the fire in Clark County 
     very near the Scott farm after we'd returned home from 
     burying my Dad yesterday.

  Coming back from a funeral.

       When they said the closest neighbor was being evacuated he 
     went as quickly as he could fearing for the cattle herd he'd 
     worked the last five years to build following the death of 
     his own Dad. I stayed behind with the boys at our house 40 
     miles away.
       When the wind switched at my house from south/southwest to 
     the north, I began to worry even more and called him. At this 
     point he was waiting out the fire and smoke in the wheat 
     field, helplessly watching the house and barn burn. I wanted 
     to be at the farm so bad, but there wasn't much that could be 
     done. When he made it home unscathed I was pretty happy, but 
     sad at the same time. Knowing there was nothing we could do 
     to fix what it took for Mother Nature mere minutes to 
     destroy.
       Fifty-two cows are on the farm, with about half or \3/4\ of 
     them with young calves. Most are accounted for. All the grass 
     is gone, as is the hay stockpile. He went and hauled water to 
     the cows this morning and some are scorched and others have 
     udders with burns. One cow was bawling for her missing calf. 
     ``Those poor mommas,'' was my text reply to him this morning.
       I made my way early this afternoon to see the farm or 
     what's left of it with my own eyes. As bad as I wanted to be 
     down there, a piece of me dreaded the drive. The closer I got 
     to the farm, the worse it got. Blowing dirt, darkening skies 
     because of the dust and awful winds. I pulled in the drive, 
     like I had done a hundred times in the nearly 20 years I have 
     been part of the family, and I had to stop my vehicle. The 
     tears came and the heartbreak overwhelmed me.
       I thought of the old white farm house with the wonderful 
     front porch, where my husband spent a large majority of his 
     childhood in and around. My fondest memory is when we'd stop 
     and see my husband's Grandma Pauline. She'd always have 
     something sweet to eat and a cold drink at the kitchen table. 
     The home had been around for 100 years and still had a large 
     portion of the family momentos in it. It was reduced to ashes 
     and rubble. All that's standing is the chimney.

[[Page S1762]]

       I couldn't see the barn around the trees, but I again had 
     to stop and sit when I pulled around the corner. The barn. 
     The old barn with its red siding. I remember when my father-
     in-law had it painted and how proud he was because it looked 
     so good. I remember when he laid the brick in front of the 
     tack room and built a new door for it. My boys explored every 
     inch of it when we worked calves last fall. You could 
     ``almost'' hear the horses munching in the stalls decades ago 
     when you stood in the center alley. Now it's just a charred 
     pile of tin.
       I realize the house and barn are just buildings. Things can 
     be replaced. But dang, it's so hard to see it all reduced to 
     ashes and rubble. To see part of the Scott family history, 
     more than a hundred years, just be gone. Just like that. It's 
     hard.
       We've had incredible friends and family offering help, hay 
     and feed, and it's heartwarming to know how much people care. 
     Like I heard an Ashland, Kansas resident on the news this 
     morning being interviewed, it's just what southwest Kansas 
     people do. Help and survive.

  Here is a picture that was taken on Kylene and Spencer Scott's 
wedding day in 2009 up here. It is a beautiful sight. Off in the 
distance is the Clark County Lake. It is rolling hills, cattle country, 
cattle, and grass. Looking at this picture now, it is not hard to 
wonder how this land will come back to provide for so many, as it has 
for generations of Kansas farm and ranch families whose sweat and blood 
have produced for Kansas, our Nation, and, yes, the world, as well.
  There is the other picture. They got married here. It was the 
happiest day of their life. They saw this, and that became just about 
the worst day of their life. And yet, having seen this devastation 
firsthand, I don't wonder about Kansas and our ability to rebuild. It 
is in our State motto: Ad astra per aspera--to the stars through 
difficulties.
  In one of the emergency management centers I met Joyce Edinger. When 
I asked her what I could do to help, she just said: ``The Lord will 
provide.'' She had lost virtually everything. I think that pretty well 
sums it up. The faith of Kansans gives us courage to rebuild--the 
courage to come through fire. Ashland banker Kendall Kay emotionally 
said:

       Senator, we are going to need help. We really don't want 
     it, but we are going to need it.

  I am so proud of the people of my State who have come in with that 
help before they were even asked. I had been in contact with all of our 
producer groups in Kansas--the Kansas Livestock Association, the Kansas 
Farm Bureau--who along with our State agencies had been leading the 
voluntary relief effort. I commend them for their efforts in collecting 
hay for cattle, as well as monetary donations, coming in from all parts 
of the United States, and volunteer coordination for repairs to 
property and fencing.
  With Congressman Roger Marshall of the First Congressional District, 
and my colleague here and friend in the Senate, Jerry Moran, we have 
been in touch with the Department of Agriculture with regard to 
assistance that should be available to farmers and ranchers in counties 
that have suffered losses.
  Here is what we are trying to fix. This fellow is walking across here 
to that bluff that overlooks that valley that Spencer and Kylene looked 
over, and this fellow here is Chad Tenpenny, my top guy in Kansas. That 
is me with my hands in my pockets. It is pretty rough to see ground 
like this that was grass and to look at the utter devastation. Folks, 
when that wind blows and when that dust starts up again, we could be in 
for even more trouble. So cleanup is under way, but we are trying to 
get help to cut through the redtape and get a disaster declaration.
  I talked to the Governor this afternoon. Primarily, it is the 
Emergency Conservation Program, the Livestock Indemnity Program, and 
Environmental Quality Incentives Program, or EQIP, that are the key 
programs. It won't make people whole by any means, but it will give 
them hope. So cleanup is under way.
  Kansas is a bootstrap State. It is not just about building new 
fencing. We have families who have lost the farmhouse and all the 
equipment they need to rebuild. Many livestock producers have had the 
gruesome task of euthanizing cattle that have been badly burned. We 
have to remove the carcasses. We have to find land for the survivors to 
graze. And we have a lot of uncertainty. How long will it take for the 
grasses to come back? When can we get rain to avoid a dust bowl? It is 
really too soon to tell. But we have been through disasters before. 
Almost 1 year ago, we had the Anderson Creek fire, and we have come 
through tornadoes and ice storms. Recovery from disasters of this 
magnitude, however, requires us to cut through the redtape. It requires 
getting the right information to producers so they know how to apply 
for aid and then to expedite it. Yes, it requires us to look at our 
programs to see where we can improve them.

  Now, this fire has not received much attention in the national media. 
You see, we are a flyover State. All we do is produce food and fiber 
for Kansas and our Nation and for a troubled and hungry world. But I do 
want to commend members of the press in Kansas, especially photographer 
Bo Rader of the Wichita Eagle, who took this photo of my State Director 
Chad Tenpenny and me walking through rangeland outside of Ashland.
  The Wichita Eagle has gone out of their way to show the world what 
this fire looks like to real people. The Hutchison News, the High 
Plains Journal, and the Dodge City Daily Globe have all told and are 
telling this story. The same is true for the TV and the radio crews who 
have helped get the news of town evacuations safety notices to our 
people. This is what they do.
  Rest assured that, as chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, I 
am committed to the Kansans I serve. They know me. I know them.
  I know that Clark County and the other 20 counties will come back. We 
will ensure they get the help they need. Ad astra per aspera--to the 
stars through difficulty. It is not just a motto; it is who we are.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.