[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?

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    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.