[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 23153]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                              {time}  1530

               HURRICANE FLOYD DISASTER IN NORTH CAROLINA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Cooksey). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Mrs. Clayton) is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. Mr. Speaker, I come from North Carolina, and there is, 
indeed, trouble in the land where I come from. There is great 
devastation. In fact, we have suffered the greatest devastation that we 
have ever suffered in the history of our State. Some are calling this 
the flood of the century. It exceeded the 500-year watermark.
  So, indeed, when we think of Interstate 95 being closed, and we know 
Interstate 95 was built for certainly every eventuality for many 
hundreds of years, when we think of the great unexpected consequences 
that this flood has brought, we can understand the devastation that the 
people in eastern North Carolina indeed are facing.
  In fact, Hurricane Floyd came on the back of Hurricane Dennis. Dennis 
had come and rained and had dumped approximately 20 inches from August 
29 to September 9. So the grounds were already soaked.
  Then as my colleagues recall, Floyd came back; and when he came, he 
came all the way up the coast from Florida all the way up to New York. 
The State of Florida was severely hit, not as much as North Carolina. 
But Virginia was also affected. The States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, 
and New York, all of those were indeed affected. But the devastation in 
North Carolina is profound.
  Over 49 individuals have been confirmed dead. There are six bodies 
unidentified. The waters now are still rising because, just yesterday, 
six more inches of water has been the result of the rain that has 
occurred, and we are expecting to get at least 4 more in that area.
  We see on TV areas like Tarboro and Princeville or Greenville, North 
Carolina. The waters that came downstream from Princeville and Tarboro, 
the Tar River is flowing. As the river is flowing down towards the 
ocean, those communities living in the wake of that flow, indeed, have 
found themselves under stress.
  Again, in Greenville, East Carolina University, the whole school, 
12,000 students were, indeed, evacuated, and 5,000 of them right now 
without accommodations. The school began today, and they are trying to 
find temporary housing for a good many of the students.
  We have more than 2,800 people still living in shelters. At one time, 
we had as many as 30,000 people living in shelters throughout. This is, 
indeed, a devastation of indescribable terms.
  One wonders, when there is such suffering, is there some redemptive 
value in that. Well, one of the things I have seen in all of the 
suffering is the resilience and the hope and the kind of dogged 
determination of people that they will, indeed, come back. But I also 
have seen just the generosity of the American people or neighbors 
helping neighbors or churches helping churches, school districts 
lending mobile units to other school districts.
  We have schools flooded. We have a whole town still under water. In 
fact, part of another town is still under water. Houses that are 
structurally so vulnerable that they probably all will be destroyed.
  Certainly in the town of Princeville, environment damage has been 
caused as a result of that. More than 1,020 hogs were killed. More than 
2.3 million chickens were killed. Five hundred turkeys were killed. 
Fertilizer, nitrate, chemicals.
  On last Saturday, I visited Princeville service stations where they 
had dislodged the gasoline tanks, and one could smell the gasoline. 
Just the environmental impact in their water system. It is going to 
take an enormous amount of resources and time and effort and 
collaboration and work and patience to restore the vitality, the 
environmental nature of the community.
  So I want to call my colleagues to understand the proportionality of 
the suffering. When any of us suffer, all of us suffer.
  This is a vast amount of North Carolina farmland. More than one-third 
of our farmland is said to be nonproductive now as an effect of having 
Hurricane Floyd.
  Hopefully, very soon, there will be a resolution on this floor that 
will say that this sense of House, we feel that, indeed, part of 
America is suffering; and this House, this body will have the fortitude 
to commit the resources that are needed to restore them.
  This will not be easy. Indeed, it will not be easy, because floods do 
a lot of things that the wind does not do. In fact, it just threatens 
the integrity of roads and bridges and water systems and structures. 
Amazing to see such devastation.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, I just commend to the people who have helped us 
our gratitude from North Carolina. But I also, Mr. Speaker, urge the 
colleagues here to respond in the appropriate way, and the American 
way, and to provide the necessary resources to restore the lives of 
these communities.

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