[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 14569-14570]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     FLOODS DEVASTATE PENNSYLVANIA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 5, 2011, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Barletta) is 
recognized for 30 minutes.
  Mr. BARLETTA. Mr. Speaker, on September 7, 8, and 9, the Susquehanna 
River and some of its tributaries, swollen by the remnants of Tropical 
Storm Lee, overflowed their banks. This happened shortly after 
northeastern Pennsylvania was soaked by Hurricane Irene, which brought 
local rivers and creeks to their banks. So when Tropical Storm Lee 
moved in over my district, the results were catastrophic. In some 
communities, the floodwaters came quickly. Creeks raged out of control. 
Homes were swept off their foundations and toppled into muddy pits. 
Roads were washed away.
  In other communities, the water rose more slowly, but it did no less 
damage. I was there in the town of Duryea, Pennsylvania, when the 
Lackawanna River topped the small levee and began flooding homes. It 
was like watching someone fill an aquarium, although this was much, 
much more destructive.
  I spent many days in September traveling across my district to see 
firsthand the devastation caused by this flooding. It's hard to 
describe exactly what it looks like. Think of everything you have on 
the first floor of your home--your couch, reclining chairs, your 
refrigerator, your stove, your dishwasher, your television. Maybe you 
have a bedroom on the first floor--your mattress, your dresser. Then 
think of everything you have in your basement--a washer, a drier, your 
furnace, your hot water heater, your winter clothing. Now imagine all 
of that on the sidewalk ready for a dumpster because it is soaked with 
river water. It's dirty with river mud. And it's contaminated by 
whatever else flowed into the river when the water rose.
  But go beyond these possessions. Think of photographs on your walls 
and on your end tables. Think of your children's toys in the basement. 
Think of the mementos, family treasures handed down to you by your 
parents and your grandparents. Now imagine all of that on the sidewalk, 
too. But it's not just your house. It's your neighbor's house next door 
and the house across the street, and all of those houses up and down 
your street. Imagine entire neighborhoods--block after block of 
destruction. And imagine the smell of it--wet fabric, spoiled food, 
spilled fuel oil, raw sewage, and mud. Mud 2 feet deep in basements and 
covering lawns and filling swimming pools.
  That is what I experienced. That is what my constituents experienced. 
It's what they're continuing to cope with as they try to rebuild.
  I will never forget standing in a ruined living room with a woman in 
West Nanticoke. Most of her belongings were piled on the street in 
front of her home. She wept as she told me that both her husband and 
son died in the last 6 months. During this flooding, she lost almost 
everything she owned. Think about that. She lost her husband. She lost 
her son. She lost most of her belongings. She lost her home. All in 6 
months. The loss is just incredible.
  I've seen children console their parents, saying, Mommy, don't cry.
  In Shickshinny, a mother pointed to a leather jacket and remembered 
the first time her daughter wore it. She broke down as she told me she 
hoped her grandchild would wear it some day. It, too, was ruined and 
had to be thrown away.

                              {time}  1650

  An old black-and-white photograph of a woman sat on a pile of 
belongings in front of a home in West Pittston. The surface of the 
photo was covered in muddy streaks as the owner tried to save it. But 
she couldn't save it from the mud. It had to be thrown away. Another 
memory lost.
  In Bloomsburg, a family stayed in their home to try to move their 
possessions to an upper floor, but Fishing Creek rose too quickly. The 
house next to theirs was knocked from its foundation. Water started 
gushing through their front windows as they called for help. They had 
to be saved by a helicopter. The woman there told me that she could 
never live in that home again.
  A woman near Orangeville cried as she told me her neighbor's house, 
carried by the same raging creek, smashed into hers, demolishing a 
lifetime of memories.
  An elderly man in Duryea broke down as he told me how much time and 
money he put into making his house a home for his family only to see it 
all ruined by high water.
  In Exeter, borough officials made a gut-wrenching decision. They 
hauled in 200 truckloads of dirt and created a makeshift dyke right 
down the middle of a residential street. Several dozen homes were 
saved, but dozens more were ruined.
  Scenes like these were repeated hundreds, thousands of times in town 
after town in northeastern Pennsylvania.
  If all of these damaged homes and businesses were in one city, it 
would make the evening news every day. But the damage sustained by my 
constituents is spread out over miles of the Susquehanna River basin. 
The scope of this damage goes far beyond what the local and State 
governments can fix on their own. The Federal Government must step in.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask, What are we going to do to make these people's 
lives whole again?
  Officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency have told my 
constituents what they will receive for their losses. It's about what 
it costs for an American family to buy a decent car nowadays. That's 
for all of their furniture. That's for all of their clothes, for all of 
their treasured belongings. For many of my constituents, it's not 
nearly enough.
  I remember standing in front of one family's home which had river 
water flowing more than a foot deep up on its second floor. Most of 
this family's possessions were piled on to the sidewalk. Some were 
dripping wet. The mother looked at her children's toys ruined by the 
flood. She pointed to one little toy and said, How can the government 
put a price on that? My son played with that. Those are memories. How 
can you put a price on that?
  She's right. We cannot put a price tag on memories. But the Federal 
Government can and should do more for our neighbors. I know that in 
these budget-conscious times we worry about offsets to increases in any 
other spending. I also know we can find some duplicative program, some 
excessive spending, some additional funding somewhere in the vast 
Federal budget and provide more help for flood victims.
  The United States of America is one of the most generous and 
compassionate countries when it comes to providing global aid. This 
government has no problem sending money overseas to build roads, 
bridges, hospitals, and schools in foreign countries. When disaster 
strikes anywhere in the world, the United States is the first country 
to help rebuild. But now that a disaster occurred right here in our own 
backyard, we need to start rebuilding here first. Let's help Americans 
first.
  We must restore American lives, save American businesses, and protect 
American jobs. At a time when we're so focused on creating jobs and 
helping businesses, the United States Small Businesses Administration 
will offer disaster recovery loans at 6 percent--that's right, 6 
percent--and that rate is if the business owners can get credit 
elsewhere. That is not acceptable.
  I talked to dozens of business owners in Luzerne and Columbia 
Counties who have lost everything: their shops, their inventories, 
their fixtures, and their equipment. A small business owner in Jenkins 
Township said he's not sure he can recover after suffering more than $7 
million in flood losses. He doesn't know if he's going to rebuild and 
reopen or maybe close his doors forever. I don't know any business 
owner in my district who thinks a 6 percent government disaster 
recovery loan will help them get back on their feet.
  My district has one of the highest unemployment rates in the State 
and a

[[Page 14570]]

rate higher than the national average. The people of the Eleventh 
District in northeastern Pennsylvania need their jobs. We can't afford 
for these businesses to close. For the SBA to offer a ridiculously high 
interest rate in the name of disaster relief to these business owners 
is downright insulting. What rate do we charge foreign countries when 
we rebuild their infrastructure? The answer is zero. We don't charge 
foreign countries any interest. The money they receive from the United 
States is a giveaway.
  This government gave 215 million interest-free dollars for flood 
relief to Pakistan, a country that harbored Osama bin Laden, and it's 
charging American homeowners and American business owners interest 
rates on loans they're using to rebuild. That's wrong.
  We must take a serious look at how the interest rate for SBA disaster 
recovery loans are calculated. That's why I introduced the Disaster 
Loan Fairness Act of 2011, H.R. 3042. This bill would set the interest 
rate for all recovery loans--home disaster loans, business physical 
disaster loans, and economic injury disaster loans--at 1 percent for 
the life of the loan up to 30 years. The rate would be effective for 
Presidentially declared major disasters, and the 1 percent interest 
rate is retained merely to pay administrative costs for the program.
  This bill would not cause the government to spend any additional 
money. It would mean the Federal Government takes in less in interest 
from disaster recovery loans. But can anyone honestly say that 
providing disaster recovery loans for American homeowners and American 
businesses should be a moneymaking operation?
  I strongly encourage my colleagues to support H.R. 3042, the Disaster 
Loan Forgiveness Act. Give Americans a low interest rate and help them 
recover.
  While my neighbors in northeastern Pennsylvania recover and rebuild, 
they're also asking what steps are being taken to protect them in the 
future. This is the role of the Federal Government. We must make sure 
disaster of this scale does not happen to these people again.
  First, the Army Corps of Engineers must complete a comprehensive 
study of the Susquehanna River basin in my district. After the flooding 
caused by Hurricane Agnes in 1972, the Corps built massive levees to 
protect the most populated areas of the Eleventh District. Those levees 
protected thousands of homes and businesses. But many people believe 
they also funneled walls of floodwater into unprotected areas upriver 
and downriver. Some of those residents were told they didn't need to 
buy flood insurance because they don't live in a floodplain. As these 
people struggle to rebuild their lives today, they want to know if the 
floodplain has changed.
  My constituents deserve to know what role, if any, these new flood 
walls played during this event. What is known is that some communities 
were devastated because they lacked adequate flood protection. For 40 
years, the town of Bloomsburg has been asking for flood protection. 
There is a plan to provide it, but the Corps of Engineers will not fund 
it because it does not meet an arbitrary benefit-to-cost ratio, the 
BCR. Now, because of the lack of adequate flood protection in 
Bloomsburg, 1,000 jobs are on the verge of being lost.
  Two of Columbia County's largest employers sit in the floodplain. 
When Fishing Creek and the Susquehanna River flood, these employers not 
only have to shut down production, but they also have to move 
equipment. That costs them hundreds of thousands of dollars. During 
this flood event, more than 6 feet of water poured through their shops, 
destroying equipment and inventory. At a time when we're talking about 
how to create jobs, we're not doing enough to protect these.

                              {time}  1700

  What is the negative benefit-to-cost ratio of the Bloomsburg Flood 
Protection project if we lose these jobs? What happens to this town, 
this county, and my district if we lose 1,000 jobs? That's just one 
component to the Bloomsburg project.
  This year, about one-third of the buildings in that town were 
flooded, one-third of an entire town. Worse, the Bloomsburg Fair--one 
of the largest economic drivers for the town, the county, and dozens of 
community and charity groups--had to be canceled for the first time 
since the Civil War due to the epic flooding.
  What happened to Bloomsburg could have been prevented. The Federal 
Government dropped the ball. It failed to protect homes and businesses. 
We need to make sure that it doesn't happen again, not to Bloomsburg, 
and not to other communities along the Susquehanna that need 
protection.
  Sadly, for some of the people I've spoken with, flood protection will 
come too late. Some of my constituents have told me that they will not 
move back into their homes. The great flood of 2011 was just the latest 
in a long line of floods that they've had to endure. They're tired of 
picking up the pieces of their shattered lives. Some in fact were in 
the process of being bought out by the government when this flood hit. 
Now they're in limbo, unsure of whether to accept Federal aid or if 
accepting help would jeopardize their pending buyouts.
  This Congress needs to look at the buyout process. I fear it is too 
confusing, it takes too long, and it discourages people from trying to 
receive the help they need.
  Mr. Speaker, over the last several weeks, I have seen terrible 
destruction and hardship endured by my constituents. But I've also seen 
tremendous good, as neighbors help stricken neighbors, community groups 
banded together, charities mobilized quickly and effectively. In 
Plymouth Township, I met Red Cross volunteers from Michigan who made 
the trip to northeastern Pennsylvania to help people that they had 
never met.
  In Bloomsburg, I visited AGAPE, a local ministry that provided flood 
victims with everything from cleanup buckets to hot meals. Church 
groups, scout troops, college clubs, sports teams, people from all 
across northeastern Pennsylvania and beyond came together to support 
each other. The recent flood was a terrible disaster, but it also 
brought out the best in our people.
  As I was driving through West Pittston, a small borough that was 
absolutely devastated by flooding, I saw a sign on a front porch: ``The 
Valley with a Heart. Thank You.''
  My constituents were knocked down, but not out. The people of 
northeastern Pennsylvania are strong and resilient, but they need help 
from the Federal Government; and the Federal Government needs to help 
them. If they get that help, my neighbors will come back stronger and 
better than before.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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