[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 45 (Wednesday, March 15, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1835-S1836]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           OKLAHOMA WILDFIRES

  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, on January 15, 2017, an incredible ice 
storm came through my State. For some States that haven't seen ice 
storms, they are beautiful, but boy are they destructive. As freezing 
rain comes down, it lands on power lines, lands on trees, destroys the 
trees, power lines come down, and it is incredibly difficult for 
families and for regions when this happens. You can't move. You can't 
function. You can't travel the streets because they are covered with 
ice. It is very destructive.
  The northwest part of our State experienced an ice storm like that on 
January 15. That ice storm devastated the Woodward area and all over 
the northwest--trees, debris, damage, power out for weeks in that area.
  Then, in early March, it was starting to warm up. The forecasters 
from the National Weather Service and the Forest Service saw the 
forecast coming out of rapidly dropping humidity levels and very high 
winds, with a lot of debris damage still in the area. It was the 
perfect storm for wildfires.
  They prepositioned assets in that area to be able to respond if they 
broke out, but on March 6--just a week and a half ago--wildfires broke 
out all across northwestern Oklahoma. Four large fires in particular 
broke out simultaneously in multiple areas. Some of them were started 
by some of those same power lines that were weakened by the ice storm. 
Now the high winds--60 miles an hour--are taking down those weak power 
lines, and they are striking the ground and starting a fire 
spontaneously out in a field.
  There were four individual fires across this area covering 315,000 
acres just in Oklahoma. One of those fires spread straight across the 
Kansas border and burned an additional 472,000 acres. To give you a 
point of reference of how large these fires were, the total fire damage 
that was done in acres is greater than the entire State of Rhode 
Island. Twenty homes were destroyed, 3,000 cattle were killed in the 
field, 6,500 hogs were killed, and 7 people died in the fire.
  Let me give you a picture of what we faced in this area as I went out 
last Friday with Senator Inhofe to tour the area both from the air and 
on the ground and to talk to farmers and those individuals who are 
trying to work through this very difficult process. Those farmers and 
ranchers are facing something you can't even imagine in their fields. 
For miles, there is no grass. The cattle that did survive the fire had 
literally no food on their ranch for miles. Hundreds of miles of fence 
line were taken down. Each mile of fence in Oklahoma, just a simple 
barbed wire fence, costs about $10,000, and hundreds of miles of fence 
line were destroyed.
  We have animals that burned alive as they tried to escape the fire. 
We had deer that, as they were running across the fields, got caught up 
in the barbed wire fence and 16-mile-per-hour winds, and the 16-mile-
an-hour flame caught up with the deer in the fence and burned them 
alive as they tried to escape.

[[Page S1836]]

  We have families who have lost absolutely everything.
  We have volunteer firefighters across much of this area who would 
literally be fighting the fire in one county in one area and hear on 
the radio about how a fire had broken out in another county on a road 
right near their own home, and literally volunteer firefighters 
fighting one fire could hear on the radio about the destruction of 
their home at a different fire.
  In different places, the volunteer firefighters and those who were 
gathered, both career and volunteers, would see a raging fire at the 
home of their neighbor, of people they knew. In western Oklahoma, you 
know your neighbors in that area. You know the folks in the county. 
They would head out to a home as the fire was rushing at them and try 
to fight it off, try to cut a fire line to be able to stop it. 
Eventually, the fire would get so close, they would literally take 
their fire equipment and park the equipment between the fire and the 
home and spray down their equipment in hopes that the fire would jump 
over the house as the firefighters just huddled behind their own 
equipment hoping the fire didn't come to them. They saved several homes 
by using that extreme method.
  Neighbors took their own farm equipment and their own tractors and 
created fire lines to be able to protect their neighbors' homes.
  These small community firefighters fought fires for hours and hours. 
They saved a lot of lives, and they saved a lot of structures.
  I can't even begin to tell you the pain of walking through that area, 
what has been described by many as walking across a moonscape of 
destruction where there is literally nothing left.
  What have we seen in that? I will state that what we have seen is a 
tenacious spirit from people who survived an ice storm, were without 
power for weeks in many areas, and then had a wildfire come right 
behind it and destroy what was left. Over 20,000 bales of hay have 
already been donated from farmers all over Oklahoma who are trying to 
feed the cattle that are still left--20,000 bales. Understand the 
expense of 20,000 bales of hay being donated but also understand the 
efforts of all the truckdrivers who loaded up their vehicles and 
personally paid the gas money and the travel expenses to be able to 
deliver that hay over hundreds of miles to those folks. Oftentimes, the 
travel of that truckdriver and the gas required are more expensive than 
the hay that is in the back of it, and they are delivering as much as 
they possibly can.
  I have to thank the folks from the Farm Bureau; the Oklahoma 
Cattlemen's Association; Western Equipment; Oklahoma Farm Credit; the 
Red Cross of Oklahoma; the Salvation Army; the Oklahoma Department of 
Agriculture; the Oklahoma Forestry Service; Southern Baptist Disaster 
Relief; Oklahoma emergency management--first responders from all over 
the State, volunteer and career firefighters who worked very long and 
difficult hours. USDA and FEMA were also on site. I thank Harper County 
Extension; all the emergency management folks from Beaver, Harper, and 
Woodward Counties; all the folks who have donated, places like Love's 
Travel Stops that have donated so much to be able to move things there; 
the United Way; Cleanline Energy and their donations; and untold 
numbers of civic organizations and churches from around that community.
  As I looked at many of those folks in the area last week and met with 
some leaders and pastors in the area, I reminded the folks that the 
devastation they face is not something that will be recovered from 
quickly. Springtime will come soon, and the area that is just black 
earth right now will spring to life with green grass again in the weeks 
ahead. But the loss of those fence lines, the loss of thousands of 
animals, the loss of homes, the loss of structures, will take a very 
long time for the folks--the farmers and ranchers who don't live on a 
high profit margin.
  I have continued to encourage the pastors and churches in that area 
to walk alongside some families who will have a hard time recovering 
from this for a long time. I have encouraged our Oklahoma agencies and 
our Federal agencies to do what we can to be able to step in with 
repairing fence lines and helping them recover from a very traumatic 
event.
  My wife and I stood with a rancher who talked about going out into 
the field after the fire. His home was completely destroyed. As he 
traveled out to the field around him checking on his cattle, he found 
dead cattle but also found cattle with their faces completely burned, 
blinded, with coyotes chasing them down. He said all he could do was 
stand there in the field and cry. These are going to be long days.
  I am grateful that there are neighbors taking care of neighbors. I am 
proud of the people of Oklahoma watching out for each other. As we walk 
through this, God willing, we will continue to be able to hug and take 
care of our neighbors in the days ahead.
  I want to tell this Senate and the people of the United States that 
this was a wildfire as big as the State of Rhode Island, and many 
people haven't even heard of it. But I can assure all of you that the 
folks in Oklahoma have experienced it, and we will walk through it 
together as a Nation.
  With that, Mr. President, I yield back.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.

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