[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Page 13205]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            TEXAS WILDFIRES

  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I rise in morning business to talk 
about a situation in Texas, the wildfires and the drought.
  Since we were mostly home during the August recess, I saw the floods 
in the Midwest and on the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. I saw the 
hurricane that hit New York and all along the East Coast. At the same 
time, with all the extra water in the East, we have had as much as 60 
days in parts of Texas with no rain whatsoever. The drought is killing 
livestock. It is killing land. It is a sad situation. What has 
happened, of course, is, from that, the wildfires have been able to go 
farther than we have ever seen in Texas before.
  Just in the past 7 days, the Texas Forest Service has responded to 
176 fires, destroying nearly 130,000 acres. This year alone, over 2,000 
fires have burned more than 2 million acres in Texas. We have high 
winds and drought conditions, which are a terrible combination in this 
instance.
  Yesterday, the Texas Forest Service responded to 20 new fires, which 
consumed nearly 1,500 more acres. One of the hardest hit areas is 
Bastrop County, which is near Austin. I was talking to some of my 
constituents in Houston, which is not near Austin, and they were 
talking about seeing and smelling the smoke in Houston from these fires 
in Bastrop.
  An assessment has been completed as of now that says 785 homes were 
completely destroyed, 238 homes have been reported lost as a result of 
other fires over the past 3 days, and the fires are so big that they 
are being photographed from space.
  Senator Cornyn and I have asked the President to add the recent 
wildfires from just this last week to his previous disaster declaration 
from this spring, which did include wildfires. I want the people of 
Texas to know that Senator Cornyn and I are working together to get all 
the Federal help they need. I have been in contact with the State 
representatives from the area, the mayors, and the county judges to get 
the reports. So far they feel they have gotten the help they have 
needed. But now, in the aftermath, we will need to be part of any kind 
of disaster bill that goes through this Senate or is declared by the 
President.
  It is my hope we can work through that next week and make sure we 
include these most recent fires along with the flood disaster relief 
that supposedly will come to the floor next week. So we are going to 
work on it and try to help these people. We can't replace the 
graduation pictures and the wedding pictures and the children's 
pictures that are lost. This is the human loss you see in this type of 
a situation. But we can certainly help these people rebuild, and that 
is what we want to do.
  We are going to be on the job trying to help in every way we can, 
knowing there will not be a 100-percent replacement because the 
photographs and the personal items and grandmother's wedding ring may 
not be recovered, but we are going to do what we can, as Americans 
always do.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.

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