[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Page 2671]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           TENNESSEE TORNADOS

  Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, thank you for the opportunity to speak for 
a few minutes this morning.
  While I would like to speak about health care and on some of the 
comments made about the stimulus package that is going to be debated 
apparently in upcoming days, I would first like to make mention of the 
tornado damage that has occurred in our State.
  We have officially 32 deaths. That number may rise. Certainly, we 
have had numbers of people in our State who have gone without housing. 
They have lost their worldly possessions. They have lost family 
members. In this time of grief for many people, I think we have also 
seen something that has been very uplifting.
  Certainly, after other disasters that have taken place in this 
country in recent times, there, in some cases, has been a sense of 
concern about whether our Government is able to meet the needs of these 
disasters we have seen in various parts of the country and in some 
cases the world.
  In the State of Tennessee FEMA, under the leadership of Director 
Paulison, and TEMA, under the leadership of General Bassham, and then 
the leadership of various local agencies that deal with disasters have 
responded in incredible ways.
  In our State, I think what we have seen is an unprecedented 
cooperation that has taken place, one that I think is going a long ways 
toward causing people to see our Government responding in a way that is 
very responsible.
  We have also seen numbers of people who have given of themselves to 
help their neighbors. We have had Red Cross personnel on site, we have 
had lots of volunteers from various organizations throughout our State 
helping those in need.
  It has caused me to feel great about our leadership, Federal, State 
and local, as it relates to responding to these people in times of 
need. I know this will continue as 16 counties right now are under the 
Federal disaster designation; there may be more coming. But my hat is 
off to all those who have been involved in helping people in this time 
of need.

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