[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 16441]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    HURRICANE SANDY: ONE YEAR LATER

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BILL PASCRELL, JR.

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 29, 2013

  Mr. PASCRELL. Mr. Speaker, I rise as we recognize the anniversary of 
Hurricane Sandy, which made landfall in New Jersey one year ago today.
  By now, we all know that Sandy was a storm of epic proportions. In 
New Jersey, 357,000 homes were damaged or destroyed, and 2.7 million 
households were left without power--some for weeks.
  We pause to remember the over 3 dozen New Jerseyans tragically killed 
by the storm. It is only thanks to the heroic efforts of our first 
responders that many more were saved from the rising waters.
  As media coverage focused on the destruction to shore communities, 
inland towns along the Hackensack River in Northern New Jersey were 
also being inundated by floodwaters
  The towns of Little Ferry and Moonachie in Bergen County were 
particularly hard hit. About 90 percent of the homes there were damaged 
or destroyed.
  Over $19.6 million in Individual Assistance from FEMA has been 
awarded in my district, including $9.3 million in Little Ferry and $6.2 
million in Moonachie--two working class towns with a combined 
population of just over 13,000.
  We have come far over the past year, but we still have a long way to 
go moving forward.
  Moonachie's Borough Hall, which houses the municipal government and 
public safety department, is still operating out of temporary trailers.
  In Little Ferry, many homeowners were only recently informed that 
after spending thousands on repairs, the extent of the damage was 
severe enough that their homes would have to be elevated--weeks after 
grant programs to help fund the elevations had closed their 
applications.
  Unfortunately, the State of New Jersey has been slow to spend its 
initial allocation of HUD funding provided under the Sandy supplemental 
appropriations legislation. According to some estimates, just 25 
percent of the funding allocated for housing programs has gone out the 
door to those in need.
  With the next round of Community Development Block Grant--Disaster 
Recovery funding on the way for the regions impacted, I will be 
fighting to ensure that these critical aid dollars go towards 
addressing our outstanding needs and priorities quickly and 
efficiently.
  Sandy taught us how utterly vulnerable we are when disaster strikes--
a lesson we cannot soon forget.
  As we continue to rebuild for the long term, we need to focus on 
finding solutions which will make our communities more resilient to 
better protect us from future storms.
  We must also work towards reducing our carbon emissions in order to 
slow the warming of our climate, which is driving stronger storms, sea 
level rise, and more severe weather.
  As we move into the second year of our recovery efforts, I urge my 
colleagues to stay firm in their resolve to support us in the work we 
still have ahead of us.

                          ____________________