[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 106 (Thursday, June 17, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S4612]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               LOUISIANA

  Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. President, June marks the start of the Atlantic 
hurricane season, and 2021 is on us, but my constituents are still 
suffering from the storms of 2020. There are a lot of folks in 
Louisiana who are still hurting. If you were to fly over Lake Charles, 
LA, you would still see blue tarps on roofs of homes damaged a year 
ago.
  I took to the Senate floor last month stressing the need for disaster 
supplemental while Lake Charles and Baton Rouge at that time were 
getting hit by heavy rains and severe flooding. At the time, Lake 
Charles ended up with 8 to 15 inches of rain in less than 12 hours. It 
is heartbreaking to see them affected once more by a natural disaster. 
Baton Rouge got more than 13 inches of rain overnight, with 15,000 
homes and businesses without power the next morning. All this comes on 
the heels of Hurricanes Laura and Delta and winter storms which had 
catastrophic damage to livestock, crops, and structures for Louisiana 
farmers.
  For those who need a refresher, 2020 set a record for the most named 
storms--30 in 1 season and 5 of those named storms hitting Louisiana, 
which is also a record. Hurricane Laura, a category 4 hurricane, hit 
Lake Charles, devastated it, and then almost the exact same place that 
Laura hit, Delta hit--category 2--6 weeks later. It is unprecedented to 
have one hurricane followed by another.
  NOAA calculates the damage from Hurricane Laura at about $19 billion 
and Delta at $2.9 billion. Laura wreaked havoc through devastating 
winds, which reached 150 miles per hour at landfall--the strongest 
hurricane to hit my State since 1856. Delta was just rain. In LeBleu 
Settlement, just northeast of Lake Charles, they received almost 18 
inches.
  I may sound like a broken record, but I need to just play this broken 
record once more. We cannot allow the impact of an entire year's worth 
of natural disasters to go unaddressed.
  Just a few weeks ago, I was in Lake Charles, and I heard incredible 
frustration about rebuilding in the aftermath of these storms--a church 
still with its roof ripped off; homes, as I mentioned, covered with 
tarps--and stories from members of the community who are not back in 
their homes and, frankly, may not even be back in their city because 
there are no homes and there is no housing for them to return to.
  The people in Lake Charles have an incredible resilience and an 
incredible we-can-do spirit. So you go there, and people are laughing 
and they are smiling, but then you see that blue tarp, and you know 
that this community will not recover at the way things are going. I 
would argue that the weather events were tragic, but the lack of action 
upon recovery is making a tragedy worse.
  In March, my colleague from Oregon, Senator Jeff Merkley, and I urged 
the Biden administration to support a supplemental disaster 
appropriation to urgently address and direct Federal resources to 
communities throughout America struggling to recover from hurricanes, 
floods, wildfires, and other 2020 natural disasters.
  President Biden came to Louisiana. Once more, he heard from Mayor Nic 
Hunter, Governor Edwards, and myself that we could hopefully have some 
relief. We need programs like community development block grants, 
disaster recovery, mitigation funding, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineer 
funding for southwest coastal Louisiana hurricane and storm damage risk 
reduction. We need emergency solutions grants and social services block 
grants to provide assistance to the thousands of families who have lost 
their homes due to hurricanes like those I have been describing.
  We are past due moving quickly. If it happened tomorrow, it still 
would have not happened quickly, and we have gone into another year 
which could have similar storms. We need to help the people of 
Southwest Louisiana. The region has been pounded. My job is to do all I 
can to help them get back on their feet.
  Once more, I call on my colleagues in the House and the Senate with a 
simple message: Let's get a disaster supplemental done.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from Michigan.

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