[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 12520-12524]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            MIDWEST FLOODING

  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I rise to offer my thoughts and prayers 
to the people and communities throughout the Midwest who were hurt by 
last week's massive floods.
  It appears that the floodwaters have begun to recede. But the long, 
hard process of cleaning up and rebuilding lies ahead.
  In particular, I offer sympathy and support to my colleagues Tom 
Harkin and Charles Grassley, the Senators from Iowa, whose governor has 
declared 83 of the State's 99 counties to be disaster areas.
  Worst hit was the city of Cedar Rapids, IA.
  Over 9 square miles--or 1,300 blocks--were flooded in the city and 
25,000 people had to be evacuated from their homes. Preliminary 
estimates indicate over $700 million in damage. This is in Cedar Rapids 
alone.
  In Cedar Rapids, it is being called not the flood of the century--but 
the flood of the half-millennium--an event that should occur only once 
in 500 years.
  In fact, rescue workers from Minnesota have been deployed to Iowa to 
help the victims of the flooding there.
  While the residents and businesses of Cedar Rapids were hit the 
hardest, they were hardly alone. Heavy rainfall last week submerged 
much of the Midwest--Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, and my own 
State of Minnesota.
  Throughout the Midwest, corn and soybean fields turned into lakes. 
City streets turned into canals. It's like Waterworld. There is water 
nearly everywhere. And where there isn't water, there is mud. Lots of 
mud.
  In terms of physical devastation, some are calling these floods ``the 
Katrina of the Midwest.''
  Among the areas suffering flood damage was the southeastern corner of 
my state of Minnesota. Three major rivers in the area--the Root, the 
Cedar and the Zumbro--all flooded.
  Four Minnesota counties were declared State disaster areas--Freeborn, 
Mower, Fillmore and Houston counties.
  This includes areas that have already suffered extensive flood damage 
in the past year--both with the devastating floods in August last year 
as well as floods earlier this spring.
  As you can see from this aerial photograph of Austin, MN, taken last 
week, flood, water poured across big sections of the city, flooding not 
just streets, but highways and freeway ramps.
  This weekend, I spoke with the mayors of Austin, Rochester and 
Lanesboro. Later in the week, I plan to visit the area and meet with 
local leaders and residents. After the floods last August, I traveled 
to the area several times to survey the damage and work with local and 
State leaders to obtain Federal aid and assistance. My family and I 
even spent a weekend in the area.
  I know these communities are strong--just as you will see with the 
State of Iowa, which State has been hit even harder, and they will make 
it through this latest disaster.
  Last week's flooding resulted in the death of one Minnesota man, Dale 
Wangen, of rural Albert Lea. He was driving home in the dark, rainy 
night and suddenly his car plunged into the rushing flood waters 
because the road was washed away.
  Emergency responders found him only because another car came along 
and also plunged into the water. That driver was able to get out. But 
he told rescuers that his car had crashed on top of another car.
  Austin, MN, is home to Hormel Foods, a Fortune 500 company. They had 
to close their corporate offices because of the flood.
  Here is a second photograph of Austin, also taken last week. You can 
see that it was not just a few wet basements. Some neighborhoods were 
flooded practically up to the treetops and had to be evacuated.
  Fortunately, Austin was spared even worse damage because--ever since 
a major flood 30 years ago--they have been implementing a comprehensive 
flood mitigation plan, including the purchase of more than 250 homes in 
flood-prone areas.
  Nonetheless, the three worst floods in Austin's history have all 
occurred since the year 2000--with the worst in 2004.
  As one resident of Austin put it: ``It seems like we're getting a 
`hundred-year flood' every 3 or 4 years.''
  While the most attention is given to cities and towns damaged by the 
floods, the countryside has not been spared, either.
  Houston County, at the far southeastern tip of Minnesota, is a rural 
area with a total population of just 20,000. Preliminary estimates 
indicate that Houston County alone has suffered close to $7 million in 
infrastructure damage and $15 million in crop damage.
  Heavy spring rains had already delayed the planting of crops. Now, 
there are acres and acres of young corn and soybean plants that are 
under water. The work that Senator Harkin has done as Chair of the 
Agriculture Committee is making sure that we give permanent disaster 
relief is so important. These floods are one example.
  We will not know the full extent of the damage until the harvest this 
fall. But the end result could be billions of dollars in crop losses.
  At a time like this, local communities should not be expected to fend 
for themselves. The Federal Government has an essential role to support 
communities as they recover and rebuild.
  In these circumstances, the Federal Emergency Management Agency--
FEMA--must be a lifeline to help these communities both survive and 
come back.
  FEMA is the primary coordinator of all Federal responses to this 
national tragedy, from first making sure that people are safe and 
secure, to then making sure that those people are made whole again, to 
finally making sure that their infrastructure is rebuilt and made 
stronger, so that such disasters do not happen again. We saw this in 
flooding last year in Southeastern Minnesota, where whole communities 
were washed out. We went through these three steps so those communities 
are beginning to thrive again.
  The Small Business Administration plays a key role in recovery 
activities, providing vital assistance to local businesses that have 
suffered economic losses.
  While we did not need it, the floods provide justification for the 
first-ever permanent program of disaster assistance for farmers, which 
we just passed as part of our farm bill.
  In my state of Minnesota, it has been a tough 2 years when it comes 
to disasters.

[[Page 12521]]

  Last spring, we had the Ham Lake fire that burned 76,000 acres in 
northern Minnesota.
  On August 1 last year, we had the collapse of the Interstate 35W 
bridge in the heart of our Twin Cities metropolitan area, killing 13 
people and injuring over one hundred.
  Later in August, we had the devastating floods in southeastern 
Minnesota that cost six lives and caused tens of millions of dollars in 
damage.
  Less than a month ago, on the Sunday evening before Memorial Day, the 
small community of Hugo was hit by a fierce tornado. It killed a 2-
year-old boy, Nathaniel Prindle, and seriously injured his 4-year-old 
sister, Annika. Fifty homes were completely destroyed and another 250 
were damaged.
  But there is one special thing we have seen with each one of these 
disasters. It is the sight of people joining together to help and care 
for others in need. Even with all the devastation, disasters like these 
still bring out the very best in the human spirit. Not just neighbors 
helping neighbors, but strangers helping strangers.
  Disasters can take away lives; they can destroy homes; and they can 
wipe away roads and bridges. But, in America, we won't let them take 
away our spirit of community.
  With the appropriate State and Federal support, I am confident that 
the flood-damaged communities of the Midwest will thrive once again. 
With leaders like Senator Harkin and Senator Grassley, I am confident 
Iowa will thrive once again.
  I think about the epic flood that occurred 11 years ago on the Red 
River bordering Minnesota and North Dakota.
  The waters inundated downtown Grand Forks in North Dakota and East 
Grand Forks in Minnesota--60,000 people had to evacuate; 900 lost their 
homes; and 11 downtown buildings were destroyed.
  But with the hard work of Senators Dorgan and Conrad and officials 
throughout North Dakota and Minnesota, it is amazing to visit those 
communities today and see how they have rebuilt and moved forward.
  I hear that officials from Grand Forks have already reached out and 
talked with their counterparts in Cedar Rapids, IA--giving them advice 
on everything from legal issues to how to rebuild.
  That, too, is the spirit of America. We know we will be able get 
through this disaster because we know we will work together and provide 
support to one another.
  I see Senator Harkin and Senator Grassley are coming to the Senate 
floor. Again, we pledge from the State of Minnesota to do everything we 
can to help them. Their damage was so much more extensive than ours. 
But we know with fine leaders like these, they will help their State 
get through this. I know we are sending emergency workers from 
Minnesota at this very minute.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The senior Senator from Iowa is 
recognized.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I am proud to be here with Senator 
Harkin. But I am not proud to be here because of the situation that we 
described to you, which is the flooding in our State of Iowa. I am 
going to show some pictures. Senator Harkin has some pictures. I am not 
going to refer specifically to the pictures during my remarks, but I 
think you can see from the New York Times, downtown Cedar Rapids, IA--
City Hall here on an island between the rivers, kind of in the citadel 
of Cedar Rapids, and water has never been that high before. This is 
truly a 100-year flood.
  Then we have another picture here of Cedar Rapids. It happens to be 
on the very same street on which Senator Harkin has his office. My 
office in Cedar Rapids was in the Federal Building. The Federal 
Building is just across, right there. So it is shut down, obviously. I 
just want to make some remarks about the situation in Iowa and then 
turn the floor over to Senator Harkin.
  We come to the floor to share with our colleagues and the American 
people the stories of more natural disasters to hit Iowa. In my case, 
less than 2 weeks ago I came to this very spot to honor the victims and 
to hail the heroes from a deadly tornado that ripped through my home 
county, Butler County, IA. In a little more than a week, Mother Nature 
has ripped open a healing wound.
  As many people can see on television, Iowans are seeing record floods 
throughout the central and eastern part of our State. I can tell you 
that television hardly does justice to this historic devastation. Iowa 
braced for a repeat of 1993, but it didn't happen. Instead, Iowans are 
facing head on a 500-year flood; more than 38,000 people have been 
evacuated from communities across eastern and central Iowa.
  Rivers have overtaken several communities, and I cannot name all of 
the communities, but I think of Mason City, Waverly, New Hartford, 
Waterloo, and Cedar Falls. And then Mother Nature took her toll on 
Cedar Rapids, downstream from Waterloo and Cedar Falls, and hit 
Coralville and eventually Iowa City. In fact, that is two separate 
rivers doing this damaging situation. Des Moines and Columbus Junction 
and Vinton have seen the full power of the raging river as well. 
Unfortunately, there are more communities that have already seen the 
force of these waters and many more being hit downstream.
  Like 2 weeks ago when tornadoes hit Butler County, Iowa has been the 
recipient of an outpouring of support from around the country. Homeland 
Security Secretary Chertoff in western Iowa with Governor Culver and 
FEMA Administrator Paulison were both in our State to tour the rising 
waters, and Administrator Paulison did that with Governor Culver, 
Senator Harkin, and this Senator. It is my understanding that later on 
this week, President Bush will come to Iowa. And when it is all said 
and done, there are no better friends to these communities than their 
own local emergency management people, the local police and the local 
fire and the Iowa National Guard members. These people have been on the 
front line. They are analyzing each movement of water, watching 
bridges, water treatment plants, and ensuring the safety of every 
community member.
  Most importantly, though, are those who are working together just to 
help a neighbor or a friend. Citizens by the thousands are filling 
sandbags, prisoners from local jails are helping with sandbagging 
efforts, and volunteers for the Salvation Army and the Red Cross and 
most of the local churches--all of the local churches, I am sure--are 
seen throughout the flooded areas offering food, water, and shelter.
  Senator Harkin and I toured several communities Friday, as I 
indicated, with Administrator Paulison, the Small Business 
Administration, and Governor Culver, who is on the job every minute of 
the day. We did that on Friday. Of course, Governor Culver is doing it 
every day. On Saturday, Senator Harkin and I surveyed other areas. On 
Friday, we happened to visit Des Moines, Waterloo, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 
City, back to Des Moines. Looking down, you could hardly see a dry 
piece of land between any of those cities. Houses, businesses, and 
crops alike are all underwater. When I say crops are underwater, I have 
to say that in some areas, whole fields, but there is not a field we 
flew over that did not have some ponding and some loss of a part of it 
at least. So crops are definitely hurt. Then on Saturday, Senator 
Harkin and I went to Mason City, Charles City, Nashua, and Waverly, and 
then I had an opportunity to go to my downtown of New Hartford, where 
all but 2 or 3 homes out of 250 had water in them. It is devastating. 
There is hurt everywhere. There is devastation that I never dreamt of. 
I suppose if we could remember 15 years back, Des Moines, yes, maybe. I 
ought to say that I never dreamt of it. I guess I never dreamt from 
that time that it would happen again to the extent it did in 1993.
  We were encouraged as we traveled by the sandbaggers and their 
endless amount of resiliency to get the job done. But in the next 
moment, we felt the hurt of those staying in shelters who had lost 
everything. As you talked to them, they obviously showed sorrow

[[Page 12522]]

through their tears and, of course, the effort of maybe a life of work 
gone down the drain. Yet, through it all, Iowans are coming together 
and pulling through as only Iowans can as the water begins to recede in 
part of the area we entered. But do not forget that in the days to 
come, downstream, as you move toward the Mississippi River, other 
people are going to go through what we saw. But as the water begins to 
recede, people are attempting to get back into their homes. It is 
obviously frustrating. It is obviously discouraging. Besides the home 
itself, probably meaning a lot more to other people are pictures of 
loved ones, ruined heirlooms handed down from grandparents that you see 
floating even on the second floor.
  Just as we did in 1993, and more recently, the people of Parkersburg, 
New Hartford, Hazelton, and Dunkerton have moved forward and begun to 
rebuild. So will the people of the rest of the State of Iowa go forward 
to rebuild. It is going to take time. It is going to be weeks in some 
cases. In some cases, it is going to be years to rebuild and get back 
to where people were.
  I am confident that we will get through this. Senator Harkin and I 
are here to help, as well as the Congressmen in the other body. We are 
meeting regularly to discuss what we can do at the Federal level. Our 
staffs are meeting and talking several times daily to coordinate work. 
I am confident that when it is over, we will see the resiliency of 
Iowans come through, and we will all look to each other and our rebuilt 
communities and say, as we said: It was sad at the time, but we can do 
it. I think we will say it has been a job well done.
  Mr. President, before I yield the floor, I would be remiss if I did 
not pay deep respect to the four Boy Scouts who lost their lives and 
also to those who heroically and bravely helped others hurt during 
another act of Mother Nature in western Iowa on Thursday.
  Funeral services are being held today for 14-year-old Aaron Eilerts 
of Eagle Grove, who was killed by a tornado at Little Sioux Scout 
Ranch. The other three were from Nebraska and I believe from Omaha. But 
whether you are from Omaha or Iowa, being a Boy Scout leader and having 
this tornado happen and losing the life of a future leader of America 
is a sadness, whether you are from Nebraska or Iowa. Boy Scouts are 
often called upon to serve as leaders of our Nation in all walks of 
life. We lost four promising leaders far too prematurely and painfully, 
adding to the already existing hurt many in Iowa are feeling.
  Before I yield the floor, I thank Senator Harkin for being able to 
work closely with him, being able to travel together and see this 
situation. I wish we did not have to be working together on this 
project because it is sad but one that makes you proud of Iowans as 
well. We will continue to work together to see our way through it.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Iowa.
  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, first let me thank my senior colleague 
Senator Grassley for his many kindnesses and for working and 
coordinating this as we did the other day. Our staffs are working very 
closely together to do everything we can to ensure that the recovery we 
have to do now is swift and thorough and that we do everything we can 
to assist the many volunteers in Iowa who have come forward to help.
  We toured a lot together late last week. I am sure we will be doing 
more this week to make sure that we are up to speed, that we know what 
is happening, that we have a firm grip on the different agencies that 
have to come to Iowa for this tremendous cleanup effort.
  I wanted to join with my colleague Senator Grassley in giving a 
little bit of a report on the events unfolding in my State of Iowa. 
Senator Grassley has covered them, but I might add of couple of things.
  As he said, last week we toured a number of cities: Waterloo and 
Cedar Falls and Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Des Moines, Mason City, 
Charles City, Nashua, Waverly--all places hard hit by this flood. I 
need not tell Senators--I know you have all watched it unfold on 
television, on CNN and everything else--as to the devastation in our 
State. Every newspaper is covering it on the front pages, whether it is 
the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune or 
Atlanta or wherever you are.
  Iowa is experiencing flooding of almost Biblical proportions. Nine 
rivers are at flood stage, 83 of our 99 counties have been declared 
disaster areas by Governor Culver, and 54 roads and highways have been 
closed. Interstate 80, the major east-west thoroughfare of our Nation, 
is closed and has been since--well, I think since Friday, either 
Thursday or Friday. In Iowa, Interstate 80 is closed. Interstate 380, 
north-south, is closed, not to mention a lot of our smaller roads and 
highways in Iowa, making it very difficult for people to even get 
around.
  As Senator Grassley said, last Friday we were accompanied by FEMA 
Administrator Paulison and Governor Culver, OMB Director Nussle, a 
former Iowan. Mr. Paulison said the flooding was some of the worst to 
hit the United States since Hurricane Katrina slammed into the gulf 
coast. I would simply add that the cresting Cedar River raging through 
downtown Cedar Rapids is as bad as what Americans saw in Katrina in New 
Orleans in 2005.
  You have to witness it with your own eyes to appreciate the breadth 
and the intensity of this devastation. It is very humbling when you 
meet with so many people who have been so affected by this, lost their 
homes, several lives lost. Thank God we kept it to a minimum--but 
losing all of their homes, things they have built all their life. Do 
you know what is really sad? Homes can be repaired. You can rebuild a 
house, you can do things again. It is so many of the personal effects 
people lost. Because they had to leave in such a hurry because of the 
rising waters, they were not able to take a lot of their personal 
effects: mementos, pictures, albums, birth certificates--all kinds of 
things like these that are the summation of your life, in many cases, 
gone, and those are irreplaceable. It is shocking, the devastation. 
Tens of thousands have been displaced, 25,000 people in Cedar Rapids 
alone.
  This again, as Senator Grassley pointed to one chart, is another view 
of the Cedar River here, Alliant Energy here. I will show you another 
picture shortly. The downtown area is over here. This is city hall. As 
you can see, it is totally inundated. Of course, power is off and 
everything. This is sort of the downtown area.
  Then I think that I have one here--yes. This is a picture I took 
myself. I took this with a digital camera flying over it on Friday. 
That was city hall you saw in the previous picture. But you get some 
idea of the devastation of downtown. For example, the picture Senator 
Grassley showed is right down here. My Senate office is in this 
building here; of course, totally inaccessible, everything is shut 
down. So you can begin to get an idea of the magnitude of it.
  Right over here is the Quaker Oats plant. I am sorry, I cut it off. 
This is the Quaker Oats plant. This is the largest grain milling 
facility in the world, and it is shut down, underwater.
  Now you begin to see some of the other neighborhoods here and how 
they are impacted also. I wanted to see how many blocks it was. This is 
a typical part of Cedar Rapids that is flooded. You can see what a 
block would be like. You know, I cannot even tell the streets here, but 
I assume this would be a street, this would be a street, and this would 
be a street, so that would be a block. So you have about--maybe you 
have six or eight blocks here. There are 400 blocks like this that are 
underwater in Cedar Rapids--400. I did not have a camera big enough, 
did not have a lens big enough to cover it all, but 400 city blocks are 
inundated like that.
  In Iowa City, much of the University of Iowa has been inundated. 
Students, faculty, staff--we were there watching them sandbag. Students 
were working, moving books from the library, artwork from the 
university's gallery.
  Also, it is not just our largest cities. We talk about Cedar Rapids, 
Waterloo, Des Moines, and Iowa City, but there

[[Page 12523]]

are other smaller towns and communities we visited. Senator Grassley 
and I were in Charles City and Waverly. Each have more than 500 homes 
inundated with floodwaters. We were told on Saturday one in every four 
residents of Waverly--one in every four residents--is affected by this 
situation, and their houses are flooded.
  We went through the downtown area of Waverly on Saturday--not a 
business was open. Now, thankfully, the waters have receded because it 
is up north and the water is headed south. The waters have receded, but 
they do not have power yet. They have all the mud and the dirt and the 
debris to clean up.
  Elkader had 60 homes and 30 businesses destroyed when the Turkey 
River went over the levee. The Anamosa sewage treatment plant failed at 
two different points because the levee broke. The list goes on and on.
  I had to duck out for a minute when my colleague was talking, but 
Senator Grassley's hometown of New Hartford--you feel so sorry for 
them. They were hit by this tornado a couple weeks ago, and a couple 
people lost their lives. It did not hit the town squarely, but it 
nicked it and took some houses out on the north side of town. But then 
New Hartford got flooded, and they had to evacuate the town because of 
the flood.
  If you fly over Iowa--and, of course, being chairman of the 
Agriculture Committee and being associated with agriculture all my 
life, I wanted to look and see--and you look over the countryside of 
Iowa, I do not know that I saw one field that was not affected with 
ponding and water. Because the corn had only come up maybe a couple of 
inches, the water has covered it and it is dead. It is gone.
  So we do not know the extent of this damage, but the Iowa Farm Bureau 
estimates that as much as 16 percent of Iowa's 25 million acres are 
currently under water. Now, I have to tell you, just from my own 
eyeball, looking at it while flying over it over 2 days, I think it is 
higher than that.
  Again I say, we see nature at its worst, but we see people at their 
best. With the sheer number of volunteers filling sandbags and helping 
out in other ways, thousands have participated. We were in Iowa City, 
and they were sandbagging up the library. You had little kids--9-, 10-
year-old kids, maybe some younger--holding these plastic funnels so 
they could get the right amount of sand into the sandbags. Then they 
had these lines set up with students and everything.
  I saw the same thing in Des Moines: sandbaggers sandbagging 24 hours 
a day. More people showed up than they could actually use to work.
  There is no doubt, I am told by the mayor of Cedar Falls, Mayor 
Crews, that the effort of volunteers at Cedar Falls--that is right 
across the river from Waterloo--that the thousands of sandbags--tens of 
thousands--that were filled and reinforced the levee saved the downtown 
area of Cedar Falls.
  So everywhere Senator Grassley and I went last week, we witnessed 
Iowans giving their all to help their neighbors. I would be remiss if I 
did not mention the Iowa National Guard. Thank God for the Iowa 
National Guard. I am glad they are here. They have been deployed a lot 
in Afghanistan and Iraq, but it is nice to know they are home now. They 
were there to help. Over 2,500 members were mobilized. General Dardis, 
the head of our Iowa National Guard, has done a superb job.
  Everywhere you go you see these National Guard people out there 
working. They are working, they are organizing, they are taking 
leadership positions. They are doing everything from filling sandbags 
to working the levees, helping people out of their homes, doing a 
magnificent job.
  Again, I see these National Guard kids out there. I don't know when 
they ever sleep. It is like 24 hours a day they just keep going.
  Well, I guess if there is any good news, it is that in Iowa City the 
water crested yesterday. But, again, when I talk about ``over flood 
stage,'' usually when you talk about something being over flood stage, 
you are talking about it being a few inches over. Get this: In Cedar 
Rapids the old record was 20 feet set in 1929. On Friday, the river 
crested at 32 feet--almost 12 feet higher than any time ever. We never 
had this level of flooding. This level of flooding has never happened 
in Cedar Rapids.
  Across eastern Iowa, flooding rivers have washed out railroad lines. 
Mississippi barge traffic has come to a halt. It closed major roadways. 
As I said, Interstate 80 is still closed.
  Thousands of Iowa businesses, large and small, have been impacted. 
John Deere had to evacuate two of its plants in Waterloo. I mentioned 
the Quaker Oats plant, as shown here on the map, in Cedar Rapids. It is 
the largest grain processing plant in the world. It was flooded and 
left idle.
  In Cedar Rapids, 400 city blocks are submerged, as shown right there 
on the map. That is valued at close to $750 million. Early estimates of 
damage to Iowa's agricultural economy, I can tell you right now, will 
exceed over $1 billion. That is just agriculture.
  Well, Iowans are a resilient and resourceful people. But, as with the 
gulf coast in the wake of Katrina, we are going to need generous 
Federal assistance to help us get back on our feet. The destruction is 
so vast that it is simply beyond the capacity of local governments and 
the Iowa State government to handle it by themselves.
  Now, keep in mind, when we talk about the big cities, there are so 
many small towns and communities out there that have been hit hard that 
need help and jobs that need to be rebuilt. It is not just Iowa. We 
have Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Kansas, and 
Minnesota. They have all been hard hit by flooding and tornadoes.
  I believe the hardest hit States will need to have the local matching 
funds for FEMA assistance, which is normally 25 percent, they are going 
to have to be reduced as much as possible. I hope we can work with the 
administrator and with President Bush to get that down as much as 
possible.
  The Iowa delegation--on a bipartisan, bicameral basis--is preparing a 
letter right now asking the President for this relief. There is no 
conceivable way that a State with the devastation on the scale that 
Senator Grassley and I witnessed this weekend can come up with a 25-
percent match in order to trigger the customary FEMA assistance.
  Now, beyond that, we are going to need to move quickly in addressing 
weaknesses in our flood control systems and some other mitigation needs 
so businesses and homes can be safely repaired.
  The full 15 percent in FEMA disaster mitigation assistance, as 
authorized back in 1993, should be provided. It may very well make more 
sense for the State to buy homes that have been flooded so we can avoid 
having them flooded again in the future, with those repairs again paid 
for with Federal flood insurance and other Federal assistance. Such 
homes can be purchased and then permanently converted to parkland or 
other uses that will not need very costly repairs after future floods.
  I might add, we had devastating floods in Iowa in 1993. We did some 
of this mitigation. Because some of those homes were removed--in fact, 
I think there is one town where basically the whole town was moved to 
higher ground. And guess what. They did not get flooded this time. A 
lot of times it makes good sense to do that.
  We are going to need flexible community development block grant 
funding for infrastructure repair and home assistance. Economic 
Development Administration funds for infrastructure will be needed for 
businesses and jobs. Corps of Engineers funding will be needed for the 
repair and improvement of levees. We will also need Department of 
Agriculture support for a whole variety of agricultural things--from 
repairing conservation structures to meeting new soil conservation 
problems and cleaning up debris. Every culvert going under these roads, 
all over the State of Iowa, has been plugged up with some kind of 
debris. Bridges--all this stuff--need to be taken out and taken out in 
a hurry. So we are going

[[Page 12524]]

to need the help of the Department of Agriculture on that.
  So it will be several weeks, at least, before we can have an accurate 
measure of the total economic losses and physical destruction. Probably 
more time than that for areas south of the water. The water is all 
moving south, so I hate to say this, but I think northern Missouri is 
about to get hit pretty hard. And as to the absolute southeast of Iowa, 
we have not seen it hit the absolute southeast of Iowa yet.
  So, again, we are going to have to get a pretty good handle on this, 
but this is a national disaster. It requires a national response.
  So, Mr. President, I am sure Senator Grassley and I will have more to 
report in the days ahead. But our thoughts and prayers are with the 
good people of Iowa and neighboring States who are still struggling 
with floodwaters or still picking up the pieces from devastating 
tornadoes.
  Again, I want to join with Senator Grassley in thanking so many 
church groups in Iowa. We saw them. Every place we went, we saw church 
groups getting together. Protestant, Catholic, evangelical--no matter 
who--they were all getting together and setting up response teams, 
doing an outstanding job. It was so wonderful to see these people come 
together and organize in that fashion.
  Then, of course, in Cedar Rapids, some of the churches are 
underwater. I may not have one here on this map, but I had a picture 
earlier. I had some pictures of churches that were underwater too. But 
the church groups, religious groups in Iowa, have been wonderful.
  On a really somber and sad note, I would, again, express my 
condolences to the families of the Boy Scouts who were killed at Little 
Sioux--a terrible tragedy--and to the families where some of the kids 
were hurt pretty badly. Some of them are still in critical condition.
  So we are praying for their recovery, their full recovery. But you 
listen to the stories that came out of that Boy Scout camp, and you see 
what a good thing Boy Scouts is and the leadership they provided and 
how they pulled together and helped one another. There is a lot of 
strong leadership in these Boy Scouts.
  So we hope their families will take some condolence in the fact that 
these kids responded in a great leadership fashion. These young kids 
responded as adults after that tornado hit that Boy Scout camp.
  Lastly, Mr. President, I deeply appreciate the many expressions of 
concern and caring expressed by our Senate colleagues. I have gotten a 
lot of phone calls and messages, and I thank all my colleagues for 
their expressions of concern and caring.
  We will get through it. Obviously, we will get through it. I think 
Iowa will be a stronger State. We will have some tough times. I have no 
doubt about it. A lot of people out there do not have much money. A lot 
of times it is the lowest income people along the rivers and stuff 
because, well, the spacing--that is where the cheapest land is, isn't 
it? That is where the lowest cost houses are, for the most part. I am 
not saying all, but for the most part. I have seen some pretty 
beautiful homes inundated by water too, I might add, but a lot of these 
people are low-income people. They are elderly. They have nowhere to 
turn. As a caring nation, we have to help them put their lives together 
again.
  So we will be on this every day. I am pleased to hear that President 
Bush--I just found this out a few minutes ago--will be coming to Iowa 
on Thursday. That will be good. I hope he can see this firsthand and 
then help us with getting those FEMA matching funds down as much as 
possible.
  With that, again, I will be reporting more in the days ahead. But we 
are starting the clean-up process now from the most devastating flood I 
have ever seen in all my years in the State of Iowa.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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