    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
    [February 14, 1996]
    [Pages 248-253]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks in a Roundtable Discussion on the Flooding in Woodland
    February 14, 1996

        The President. Is everybody here? Mark, do you want to start?

    [Mark Anderson, Woodland deputy fire chief, thanked the President and
    other roundtable participants, summarized the efforts to control the
    flooding, and asked the President to comment.]

        The President. Well, first of all, I want to thank you and the fire
    chief and the mayor and everybody in this community who worked so hard.
    You deserve to be a little emotional, and I bet you haven't had much
    sleep in the last several days.

    [Mr. Anderson reported that although he got little sleep during the
    first 4 days of flooding, the last few nights were more restful.]

        The President. When the mayor and I were coming in here--we went out
    and toured one of the neighborhoods, and we met with some people who had
    lost their homes, along with Governor Lowry and Senator Gorton, Senator
    Murray, and Congresswoman Smith and Secretary Pena and the FEMA
    Director, James Lee Witt, who is to my left there. It was interesting--
    he introduced me to one man who was standing on the side of the street.
    He said, ``That man ran a jackhammer for 8 hours with a cracked rib.''
    And I think that's sort of symbolic of what this community has done in
    the last few days.
        And I just wanted to say the whole country has been touched by the
    pictures we've seen, moved by the losses that you've endured but also
    moved by the way that you have rallied in this crisis. And I thank you
    very much for what you have done.
        I understand that you evacuated 1,000 people in 40 minutes. If
    that's true you could probably become police chief of Washington, DC, or
    fire chief of New York City--[laughter]--or Denver or some big place.
        Mr. Anderson. I came here from a larger fire department, and I
    really like the size of Woodland. [Laughter]
        The President. Let me say that--what I want to do today is mostly
    hear from all these folks that are here with us, but I would like to
    just--and both your elected officials and the citizens that are here.
    One of the things that we have really worked hard on since I've been
    President is trying to help make sure the Federal Government did its
    part whenever there's a natural disaster.
        When I appointed James Lee Witt to head FEMA, he had headed the
    Emergency Management Agency of our home State of Arkansas for several
    years before that. And we had been inundated with floods; we had the
    highest per capita rate of tornadoes in America; we have picked up after
    every known disaster. And we really tried to work hard with people.
        We know that the State and local community groups and people like
    the Salvation Army and all the folks that have worked here are terrific.
    We just want to do everything we legally can as quickly as we can to be
    helpful. And that's what I want to hear about today: Where are you now?
    How are you going to rebuild? What can we do?
        Today we can announce that we will be able to provide over $26
    million to the communities to help rebuild the community facilities, $10
    million in emergency relief funds for Federal highway damage, and $2
    million to meet other emergency needs. But there will be more that has
    to be done, a lot more.
        We believe that--Mr. Panetta, my Chief and Staff, and I were coming
    out here, and we were just trying to assess what we know is the damage
    in Washington and Oregon and over in Idaho. We think we'll have to do a
    lot more, and we're prepared to do it. And I basically want to spend the
    rest of this time that we have here listening

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    to the citizens and the elected officials that are here, so that when we
    leave here we've got a very good idea of where we are and what we need
    to do.

    [Mr. Anderson introduced a Woodland resident who had worked for 4 days
    on a jackhammer without going home. He then invited roundtable
    participants to comment.]

        The President. Do you want to start?
        Hans Johnston. I'm a terrible public speaker, as you soon will
    learn. [Laughter]
        Mr. Anderson. Go ahead, Mr. Johnston.
        The President. Just pretend you're not talking to the public; just
    pretend you're talking to us.
        Mr. Johnston. No, we'll survive; with the proper help that you're
    talking about, we'll survive. And we'll go back and we'll move back in
    sometime this summer, I hope, if everything goes as planned--according
    to plan.
        The President. Did you lose everything in your house?

    [Mr. Johnston said that he had lost 75 percent of his household effects,
    including photographs, furniture, and bedding.]

        The President. Mayor?

    [Woodland Mayor Jim Graham praised the community's response to the
    disaster. A participant then asked FEMA Director James Lee Witt how long
    it would take to assess damage to homes and provide financial
    assistance. Mr. Witt asked if the participant had called the 800 number
    and indicated that checks were being issued that day. He said that
    residents could get temporary housing assistance or emergency home
    repair assistance or an individual family grant and that they should
    hear in just a few days. Governor Mike Lowry then thanked the President
    for his presence and for the speed with which Federal funding was
    provided during the current and previous floods.]

        The President. That's a poor way to get Federal money, having these
    floods. [Laughter]

    [Governor Lowry said the flood would be the most expensive natural
    disaster in the history of the State of Washington, with estimates
    running to $300 million, including 2,600 residences and over 50 bridges
    lost.]

        The President. Thank you. Anyone else like to talk?

    [A participant thanked the President for his concern and then said that
    1,000 families couldn't get from their homes to the cities because of
    damaged bridges and that the Tri Cities were running out of heating
    oil.]

        The President.  Thank you. Let me say, first of all, on things like
    the heating oil issue--these big, specific issues come up--it's very
    important that we know about them if there's something we can do to
    help, and there may be.
        Governor Lowry talked about the dimensions of the losses, and I
    think that that's probably a conservative estimate, depending on--you
    know, just based on what we've seen. We may have to come back to you, to
    Senator Gorton and Congresswoman Smith and to the Congress for some sort
    of supplemental appropriation on this, and if so, we want to do it as
    quickly as possible because I don't want all of these folks out here
    hanging by their fingernails, full of anxiety about whether we are or
    are not going to be there when they need us.
        Ms. Howell, do you want to say anything? They tell me you're great.
    I expected you to be able to talk all over us. [Laughter] The guys with
    the best seat in the house up there were clapping for you. [Laughter]

    [Candice Howell, who covered the volunteer fire department telephones
    during the emergency, thanked the President for coming to the little
    town of Woodland to represent the support of the Government as a whole.]

        Mr. Anderson. With that kind of support, the community of Woodland
    can accomplish anything.
        The President. Don't forget, folks, this country is made up of
    Woodlands. And most of us who live in bigger towns now once came from
    places like Woodland. So you should never--don't feel insignificant just
    because you're small. In some ways--I was just telling the mayor, I
    said, ``It must be immensely rewarding to be the mayor of a place where
    you can know people, you see them, when they commit these acts of
    heroism and generosity you know who they are.'' There are a lot of
    places that are so big now, it would be impossible to know whether the
    guy that worked a jackhammer for 8 hours had a cracked rib, or not. In a
    place like this you know that. And that really counts for something.
        Senator Gorton?

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        Senator Slade Gorton. Mr. President, it is said that a picture is
    worth a thousand words, and Lord knows, the people who follow you around
    certainly live by that.
        The President. A thousand pictures is worth one word. [Laughter]

    [Senator Gorton said that for the people of the community, the
    President's presence was very important.]

        The President. Thank you.
        Congresswoman Smith?
        Representative Linda Smith. Thank you. We're honored you are here. I
    saw kids do what I did when I remember seeing President Kennedy--now you
    know how old I am, about the same age as you are. [Laughter]
        The President. Looks better on you. [Laughter]

    [Representative Smith said that the President's visit gave people
    reassurance. She also asked for a direct assistance site, saying people
    were stunned by the destruction and would appreciate having someone to
    talk to directly for assistance. Mr. Witt then introduced Linda Burton-
    Ramsey, director, Washington Department of Emergency Management, and
    said her agency was willing to put a disaster coverage center in
    Woodland to put all the Federal and State agencies in the same building.
    He added that State and FEMA outreach teams had been going door-to-door
    in the community as well. Representative Smith then commended the FEMA
    effort in her district.]

        The President. May I say--she made a point here, the Congresswoman
    made a point that I think is, in some ways, for all of you, not just for
    us, one of the most important things that's been said here today. A lot
    of the people who have been hurt by this flood are, frankly, still in
    shock. They have not really come--they're still trying to come to grips
    with what's happened to them and grieving over the loss of family
    pictures and things that seem small until you lose them and then they
    become big.
        And I know that it's true; whenever we go into a rural area or a set
    of small towns, people do feel awkward even asking for things from the
    Government; they don't quite know how to do it. And I appreciate the
    response James Lee gave to you.
        But I just want to remind you that I met a couple on the street that
    told me they'd been married 64 years this year, and I could tell they
    were just trying to come to grips with this. I just ask you all to be
    sensitive to this. Sometimes when the flood waters go down and there's
    nothing for a neighbor to do that's real visible like stack the sandbags
    up, we forget that there's going to be a lot of scars inside. A lot of
    these folks are going to be hurt for a very long time, and they're going
    to have to try to come to grips with it. And all of us, from the Federal
    Government on down, need to be very sensitive to this. It's going to
    be--there's a lot of tough things that people are going to have to deal
    with. The churches will have to help; everybody will.
        But I really appreciate you saying that, because sometimes I think
    we forget that in the moment. A lot of times it comes up a week or so
    later, sometimes 2 weeks later when it's really difficult.
        I want to hear from our last panelists, but before I do I want to
    say again--I want to thank Secretary Pena for coming with us. And I want
    to recognize in the audience, as we're going back to Oregon as soon as
    we leave here, the presence of Senator Hatfield, Mark Hatfield, and
    Senator Ron Wyden, the new Senator from Oregon. Thank you both for being
    here with us.

    [On behalf of other local emergency managers, Trudy Winterfeld,
    emergency management supervisor for Cowlitz County, thanked the
    President, the Governor, and the FEMA Director for their response to the
    series of disasters in the area. Another participant praised Ms.
    Winterfeld's office.]

        The President. Thank you, Trudy.
        Let me just say, you made a point which provoked another thought in
    my mind. We went down Gun Club Road today, and we saw the houses on the
    right side of the road that were wiped out. And the houses on the left
    side of the road had been built recently, consistent with the Federal
    flood standards. And as they all said, they all developed lakefront
    property overnight because behind all their houses is a big lake, but
    all those houses survived.
        And I just think it's worth pointing out that we've had several
    places in America that within the last 5 or 6 years have had two floods
    that went into their 100-year flood plain. And no one quite knows--
    there's a lot of speculation--one of the major news magazines had a
    cover

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    story on the extreme winter weather, speculating that it was related to
    the phenomenon of global warning. No one really knows. But we do know
    that both in the winter and the summer now, we're having our weather in
    more extreme bursts, so that more of our precipitation is coming in more
    extreme bursts. And we're having also really long, hot spells that are
    quite extreme. Last year was the hottest year ever recorded.
        So these are things that we have to be sensitive to, and I think
    that it's just worth remembering, as we all start the rebuilding effort,
    that there's something to be said for honoring the building standards in
    the flood plain; that it may be that these aren't 100-year flood plains
    anymore, they may be 10-year flood plains for all we know. There may be
    something rather fundamental going on, and there's nothing to be harmed
    by at least playing it safe.
        Mark, anybody else want to speak?
        Participant. Yes, sir. This will be the best, famous--whatever
    adjective you can think of, sir, for a Valentine's Day that we'll never
    forget. [Laughter]
        The President. I received a note from a young lady from this
    community whose middle name is Valentine because she was born on
    Valentine's Day, and she asked me to come by and have a piece of cake at
    her house. [Laughter] The mayor said we were too busy; I'm going to
    blame it on him. [Laughter]
        Mayor Graham. Thanks.
        The President. I appreciate that.
        Mayor Graham. Actually, we couldn't get the driver to turn the
    steering wheel in the right direction. [Laughter]
        The President. Thank you.
        Mayor Graham. Did we have some time for questions from the audience,
    Mr. President?
        The President. Does anybody have any questions about the whole
    operation here? Yes, sir.

    [A participant asked if a project to deepen the Columbia River would go
    forward, given Government cutbacks.]

        The President. I don't know that I'm familiar enough with the
    project to answer. Does anyone want to comment on it? Slade or Patty or
    anybody?

    [A participant said that Senator Hatfield, Senator Wyden, and the two
    Senators from Washington were working on the issue and making progress,
    but that it was a long-term project. Another participant concurred and
    then related an elderly gentleman's comment that there was so much
    negative talk about the Government, but when something like this
    happened, people remembered why they had neighbors and Government.]

        The President. Thank you. But I think it's important to remember he
    said it right, too; it's neighbors and Government--if you had one
    without the other, it wouldn't work.

    [A participant expressed concern about the integrity of the dikes. Mr.
    Witt said that the President had signed legislation in 1993 making more
    money available for such mitigation projects to prevent disasters from
    recurring.]

        The President. Yes, I might say in the Middle West, there has
    already been another flood in one of those areas where hundreds of
    people were saved from losing their homes a second time, but there are
    other ways to mitigate; you don't have to--it's just that--that was the
    Mississippi and the other big rivers there, and they were way down in
    the flood plain, and there was no practical way for them to do something
    like the people did on the lefthand side of Gun Club Road when I was
    walking down there.
        So they decided that they wanted to do that, and they saved it.
    There are other less drastic mitigation strategies that you can follow
    here, and you need to just decide whether--how you want to do with the
    dike or your flood wall or whatever you want to do here, and come up
    with a plan through the State, and you will be eligible for funds to try
    to implement it.
        There was a question back there?

    [A participant asked if the Corps of Engineers could take some action
    with regard to 2 or 3 miles of identifiable problem dikes.]

        The President. Can they use any of their public infrastructure money
    to fix that?
        Participant. The Corps of Engineers has----
        The President. Oh, they're Corps dikes?

    [Mr. Witt indicated that the Corps of Engineers would make many such
    repairs. A participant pointed out the need for an early warning system
    on the river in addition to repairing the dikes.]

        The President. Sir, let me follow up on what you said. It is true
    that the Corps of Engineers can do that. It's also true they're probably
    out

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    of money because we've had a lot of floods this year, including back
    in--you probably saw the floods we had in Pennsylvania and West Virginia
    and Maryland back on the East Coast, so we will probably have to include
    some more money for the Corps of Engineers in whatever supplemental
    budget we do. But if we do it, they can immediately, if they have the
    personnel, go back and fix the dikes.
        Yes, sir?
        Participant. I live on Gun Club Road that you drove down. We can
    replace our stuff; you know, you can't replace lives. As long as nobody
    got hurt, that's what matters.
        The President. Thank you.
        Participant. We had no loss of life, and we had no injuries.
        The President. Thank you for saying that.
        Mr. Anderson. Do we have a question over here?
        The President. These are, I think, the legislators from the local
    area. We thank them for coming out as well.

    [A State representative said that it was vitally important that people
    register with the 800 number as soon as possible and asked FEMA to do
    more to publicize it. Mr. Witt said that FEMA was trying to get
    information out to the public via the Recovery TV channel and the
    Recovery Times publication.]

        The President. Senator, you--well, let's do this gentleman, and then
    we'll come back to you.

    [A State senator asked for a reappraisal of height limitations for Corps
    of Engineers revetments on the Cowlitz River and also asked for work on
    flood warning systems for area rivers.]

        The President. Do you want to say anything about that, James Lee?

    [Mr. Witt said that local emergency management officials would soon be
    able to prioritize 5 percent of mitigation funds toward early warning
    systems.]

        The President. Mr. Panetta says--drawing on his experience as former
    chairman of the House Budget Committee, so he knows this stuff--
    [laughter]--he says if we get the money to the Corps, he believes they
    have some flexibility to build on the revetments as a part of the
    mitigation plan. So we need the--I would think that you all should work
    with the Governor and try to make that a part of the mitigation plan,
    because obviously that's what we're trying to do, to go back to his
    question. We're trying to minimize the chance of this occurring again.
    So I would urge you to make sure that you make that a priority, and then
    we'll try to make sure whatever we can do whatever is necessary to give
    the Corps the legal authority to do it.
        Yes, sir. There's a gentleman in the back there. We're bringing you
    a microphone.

    [Participants praised the inmates of the Larch Mountain Corrections
    Facility and all the Hispanics in the farm communities for their
    sandbagging efforts.]

        The President. There's another question back there.

    [A participant said that the work done by high school students was
    impressive and then offered the President a tape of the high school jazz
    band.]

        The President. Send it up here.
        The gentleman here in the blue jacket there.

    [Participants praised local restaurants for feeding the flood workers
    around the clock.]

        The President. Is there a question back here? There's someone with a
    hand up over here to the right. And then there's a lady over here. I'm
    running you guys crazy. [Laughter] This guy's a--he's with us, and he
    needs the exercise. [Laughter] This is part of my, you know, get-my-
    staff-fit campaign. [Laughter]
        Participant. Happy Valentine's Day, Mr. President.
        The President. Thank you, sir.

    [A participant described how the community responded within the hour to
    television requests for replacement workers on the sandbagging crews.]

        The President. Thank you. Now, there are two over there. Two people
    over here. There are two over there. You can stay now. [Laughter]
        Participant. Thank you for coming to Woodland, Mr. President. I'm
    one of your supporters that writes you letters from Woodland, although
    you probably never see them.
        The President. Keep them coming.
        Participant. One of my concerns is the possibility that Congress
    could close down the Government in March; will that interfere with the
    help needed for this area?

    [[Page 253]]

        The President. Well, first of all, I don't think that's going to
    happen. And I believe that the leaders have made it pretty clear that we
    don't think that's going to happen. And I believe that we will pass the
    legislation necessary to--the Congress can't act on it until we draw it
    up. We have to get up the supplemental appropriation necessary to
    provide the funds here. But as soon as we know it, what they are, we
    have--you know, it's going to take us a while because we can't keep--we
    want to do it all at once. But I believe that as soon as we know, the
    Congress will act appropriately. I wouldn't worry about that. I think
    they'll take care of it.
        I thought there was somebody else. Nobody else? Okay.
        Do you have a question, young lady? You want to ask a question? She
    had her hand up. Do you want to ask a question? Do you want to say
    something? I don't blame you, that's the right thing to do.
        Participant. Mr. President, she wants to wish you a Happy
    Valentine's Day.
        The President. See, I had to have valentines with my little girl
    last night. So I need a valentine today.
        Thank you very much.

    [Mr. Anderson concluded the discussion by thanking all the
    participants.]

        The President. Thank you.

    Note: The roundtable began at 11:20 a.m. in the bay of the Woodland city
    hall/fire station.