[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 17438-17439]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              RAVAGES OF TROPICAL STORM GASTON ON VIRGINIA

  Mr. ALLEN. Mr. President, before I begin my comments, I rise to 
commend the words of Senator Kyl of Arizona and Senator Lieberman. 
Senator Lieberman was commending ESPN's 25 years as a wonderful 
station, great entertainment, and something that means a lot to our 
family.
  I bring to my colleagues' attention something that is very important 
to Virginia, and Florida as well. These hurricanes and disasters that 
have been hitting our country, particularly in Florida, which has 
naturally gotten the most attention, but also Tropical Storm Gaston 
that had such a terrible impact in the Richmond area.
  We will be voting shortly on H.R. 5005, which is an emergency 
supplemental disaster relief appropriations measure. On behalf of the 
people of Virginia, and also Floridians, I thank my colleagues and also 
President Bush for acting to assist in this disaster relief, which is 
so necessary.
  I was down in Richmond yesterday inspecting businesses that have been 
flooded out by this unique flash flood that hit the Shockoe Bottom, 
which is a historic area of Richmond. There are a lot of small shops 
there, small stores, restaurants. There are people who have lived there 
since the renovation of Shockoe Bottom. There are a lot of 
manufacturers up into the Shockoe valley that were also devastated. In 
Chesterfield County, an overflowing creek came through and they 
actually had to demolish two big apartment areas and residences. Just 
in Chesterfield County alone, 47 people's lives were saved by the 
firefighters and police. There were eight people who lost

[[Page 17439]]

their lives from Tropical Storm Gaston in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
  In addition to lives lost, which of course is the worst thing to 
happen, people lost all of their possessions, photographs of loved 
ones, their important documents and files. People lost all of their 
clothing from the mud slides that came in and the water that rose so 
quickly.
  There was one fellow at the disaster relief center that opened up 
yesterday afternoon. He had pants that were covered with paint and a T-
shirt covered with paint. Those were the only clothes he had. All the 
rest of his clothes had been ruined. He was a painter. That is why he 
had so much paint on him. We saw others who were wondering where they 
were going to live and where they could get assistance. We saw small 
businesses--there were 35 businesses, 25 restaurants, hundreds of 
residences that were made uninhabitable.
  One of the best things I saw of the evidence of how this flood came 
in, particularly in the Shockoe Bottom area, was a person who had a 
laptop and on it was a videotape of the flood waters coming in. Within 
15 minutes, it had gone from nothing on the floor in the restaurant--
this was at Bottoms Up Pizza--and it went up to well over 5 feet just 
in 15 minutes. People did not have time to do much of anything other 
than get up on different places to get out of the water.
  The cleanup is going to be painstaking. A lot of work has been done. 
A lot of efforts have been made. It is a lot to clean out that mud, to 
disinfect, to dry it out and get back in business. In some of the 
places all the elevators, of course, were wrecked. In one facility, 
they had to take mud out of the basement by buckets and take it up 
steps. They did a phenomenally good job doing it but that gives us the 
sense of what has to be done.
  In another small restaurant they were taking all the screws apart of 
a coffee roaster to make sure they could be dried off and oiled. Of 
course, all the furniture is wrecked. As far as the restaurants are 
concerned, they also have to make sure all the walls are sanitary and 
cleaned out for health reasons.
  We saw trucks and vehicles all wrecked. There is one Virginia 
Guardsman who is actually over in Kosovo, his truck was swamped and of 
course made useless as well.
  The point is, FEMA needs money. They need a lot of money because of 
these disasters. The President has acted. This country is going to 
provide billions of dollars to make sure FEMA has the money. In 
addition, when you talk about small businesses, they get assistance 
from SBA for very low interest loans. Those low-interest loans can help 
a lot of those businesses get back on their feet.
  There is a lot of work, a lot of despair. Yesterday I was with 
Melanie Sabelhaus, who is the Deputy Administrator for the SBA. You see 
people's eyes light up for the opportunities they will receive.
  I know the time has expired. May I speak in that time for 3 minutes?
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have no objection to the distinguished 
Senator from Virginia speaking as long as the time for the vote does 
not change.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Morning business has expired.
  Mr. ALLEN. I ask unanimous consent to speak for an additional 3 
minutes and have that time allocated to the Republican side for the 
debate on judges so the vote continues at 5:30.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. ALLEN. Mr. President, again, this is important in that this bill 
we will be voting on after the judge votes, H.R. 5005, provides $2 
billion to replenish FEMA's disaster relief account. Included in there, 
which is very important, as Melanie Sabelhaus said, we are making 
promises of loans to folks, and we have run out of funds. So it is 
important we all work as quickly as possible to make sure these funds 
are there because there is an allocation in here of up to $30 million 
which may be transferred to the Small Business Administration's efforts 
to carry out disaster loans authorized by section 7(b) of the Small 
Business Act.
  The point is, we have a lot of people hurting in this country, in 
Florida, and obviously I am talking about Virginia. It is important we 
all come together quickly, efficiently, and as expeditiously as 
possible to assist these individuals who have a lot of pain, a lot of 
work to do, but also a great deal of spirit. In the Shockoe Bottom, 
what encouraged me the most was folks cleaning and going through all 
that work--which is very tedious work. The smells and the mold and all 
that is almost overwhelming at times. But there is a great deal of 
history in the Shockoe Bottom of Richmond. It is one of the oldest 
neighborhoods in one of the oldest cities in the country. It has a lot 
of history. This is going to be adding to the lore. I think, as they 
clean up and get back in business, it will be stronger than ever.
  I am very pleased that all of us, the executive branch and 
legislative branch, are making sure the funds are there to help those 
small business owners, men and women, get back on their feet, get their 
customers in those doors again, keep those people working.
  I thank you all for this effort. I hope this will pass unanimously 
after we dispose of the action on judges shortly.
  I look forward to making sure we work together to get America--
whether in Florida or Virginia or elsewhere--moving forward.
  I yield the floor.

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