[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 28 (Monday, July 18, 1994)]
[Pages 1474-1476]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Announcing Federal Flood Relief for Georgia, Alabama, and 
Florida in Albany, Georgia

July 13, 1994

    Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I have just had the 
opportunity to tour what is a small portion of the nearly 200 miles of 
the State of Georgia along the river that has been damaged. From here in 
Albany, down to Newton and back, I saw many things, lots of houses and 
businesses underwater, the terrible devastation of Albany State College. 
When I leave here, I'll have the opportunity to fly down across 
Bainbridge and into north Florida to see some more of the damage as it 
has occurred in Florida, Alabama, and Georgia.
    I know there are other things which have occurred that I haven't 
seen in Macon and Warner Robins. And Americus suffered terrible loss of 
life; Montezuma's business district has been very badly damaged. And all 
through middle and southwest Georgia and in Alabama and Florida, we've 
had over a million acres of farmland damaged. This is a very serious 
disaster.
    I want to thank FEMA and James Lee Witt for the work that they have 
done, and Mr. Witt came down with me today. Mr. Panetta and I flew down 
here today with James Lee Witt, with Senator Nunn and Senator Coverdell 
and Congressman Bishop and Congressman Rowland. And we met Secretary 
Espy when we got here, and I thank him, also Secretary Pena and Rodney 
Slater from the Transportation Department and Secretary Cisneros.
    We've had Senator Heflin and Senator Shelby and Senator Graham and 
Senator Mack on the phone with us. And of course, we have the three 
Governors here, Governor Miller, Governor Chiles, and Governor Folsom, 
along with the Lieutenant Governor; the secretary of state and the 
agricultural commissioner of Georgia; Mayor Keenan and the county 
executive here, Gil Barrett; and the emergency service officers of 
Georgia and Florida.
    Let me say that in a flood like this--and I've been through them as 
a Governor and as President, when we had the 500-year flood in the 
Midwest last year--that the biggest

[[Page 1475]]

tragedy is always the human tragedy. You have 50,000 evacuees, already 
over 6,200 applications for assistance. We want to be most sensitive to 
that. But today, I would like to announce a comprehensive package of 
assistance that we can make available today and also explain what 
happens after today.
    Today we will provide an additional package of relief funds and 
loans to Georgia, Florida, and Alabama totaling over $60 million. FEMA 
will free up from its existing budget over $11.5 million to clean up the 
kind of debris that I saw so much of today, to provide emergency shelter 
and clean water, which is terribly important, and to utilize sandbags 
where they're necessary to hold back waters.
    We'll allocate $4 million from the Department of Labor to provide 
jobs for workers who have been dislocated by this flood who are willing 
to participate in the cleanup and the other work that will be necessary 
to recover from the flood. The Secretary of Transportation will be able 
to provide over $12 million immediately to help to rebuild the damage to 
the Federal highways. HUD will provide $38 million in loans to repair 
some of the housing that has been destroyed so that we can help those 
families who can return to these houses go back as quickly as possible. 
In addition to that, HUD will set aside up to $10 million in housing 
vouchers for those who qualify for them if they are needed.
    The Secretary of Agriculture who is here understands what it's like 
when there are 100,000 acres of farmland under water, as there are in 
this county, alone. We have agreed that we will ask Congress to approve 
crop loss disaster assistance for this area on the same basis as that 
which was provided for the agricultural victims of the Middle West 
flood, that is, so that they can receive full reimbursement. The United 
States Department of Agriculture will also provide relief for Farmers 
Home Administration borrowers who are affected by the flood and who are 
having difficulties meeting their obligations.
    One of the things we do not want to do, with the decline in farmers 
already so evident all across our country, is to allow this flood to 
become a reason for more good farmers to leave the land. So we're going 
to do everything we can through the Department of Agriculture to keep 
the farmers who have been hurt by this, farming.
    Two other agencies I want to mention who may come into play here: 
One is the Small Business Administration, which has emergency very low 
interest loans for businesses and for homeowners, if needed; and the 
Department of Health and Human Services may be required to provide some 
assistance because of the health and safety implications of this flood. 
We're obviously very concerned about the water treatment plants and the 
other public facilities that have been damaged by the flood and that 
still could be damaged as the crest moves southward.
    So that basically summarizes this. Let me also end where I began. 
The most important thing here is to help people to put their lives back 
together. We already have over 5,000 trailers here to try to help people 
get back to some normal, healthy, decent living condition, who have been 
displaced in their homes.
    It was one of the people here in our meeting--I think it was Gil--
said that right now a lot of good people are just going on adrenaline, 
and neighbors are helping neighbors and church groups and civic groups 
and the Red Cross and the National Guard. People are just pouring their 
hearts out and working together. But in the end, it sinks in on people 
that a lot of them have lost everything they had. Fewer than 10 percent 
of the people who have been displaced have any flood insurance. The per 
capita income of a lot of these counties is way below not only the 
national average but the average in the States involved. A large 
percentage of the people who have been totally devastated here are 
eligible for public assistance.
    So our first priority is going to be to try to help these people get 
their lives in order. And we ask them, and through you, all of you in 
the news media, we ask you to help us to make sure that if there is some 
glitch, some foul-up, some delay, some problem, that we know about it as 
quickly as possible so we can put the hammer down and solve it as 
quickly as possible.
    This essentially concludes what I have to say. I do want to give 
these letters of commitment. We don't have checks anymore, we do

[[Page 1476]]

electronic funds transfer as part of our reinventing Government program 
in Washington. But these are commitment letters that will support the 
funds transfer to the Governors here. I want to give Governor Miller 
his, Governor Folsom his, and Governor Chiles his.

    And let me make just this one last point to all of you. A lot of the 
work that's going to be done here will be done after these waters go 
down. A lot of the damage that will be done to crops will not become 
apparent until after the waters go down. And a lot of the agony that 
people will have in their businesses and these little towns that have 
had all their business districts wiped out will not become apparent 
until after the waters go down.

    Our commitment is to stay in this for the long run and to do 
whatever is necessary. Mr. Panetta told me on the way down here today 
that we can make all these commitments we've made today and make good on 
them with the budgets that we have. We don't need--except for the farm 
assistance that I just mentioned, we don't need to go back to the 
Congress and ask for any more legislation on appropriations now. But we 
may or may not in the future, depending on what the facts are. And I 
just want to reemphasize to all of you, we will stay in this for the 
long run.

    We are still working with Governor Chiles in Florida on the 
aftermath of Hurricane Andrew. The bad news is, we have to do it; the 
good news is, we are doing it. So we know that this will not be done 
overnight. And we want a clear message to go out to the citizens in 
Georgia, in Alabama, in Florida that we will stay in this for the long 
run; we will stay until the job is done. We know this is going to be a 
personal agony for tens of thousands of people. But we will do the best 
we can to help you put your lives back together.
    Thank you all very much.

Note: The President spoke at 2:58 p.m. in the Ayres Corp. Building at 
the Southwest Regional Airport. In his remarks, he referred to Gov. 
Lawton Chiles of Florida; Gov. Jim Folsom of Alabama; Gov. Zell Miller 
of Georgia; Lt. Gov. Pierre Howard of Georgia; Max Cleland, Georgia 
secretary of state; Tommy Irvin, Georgia agriculture commissioner; and 
Mayor Paul Keenan of Albany.