[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 7 (Monday, February 19, 1996)]
[Pages 284-290]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks in a Roundtable Discussion on the Floods 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 intro- 

[[Page 285]]

duced 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 a thousand 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 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 join in.]

    The President. Do you want to start?
    Q. 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--you're talking about--go back 
sometime this summer----
    The President. Did you lose everything in your house?

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

    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 the participant if they 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 disaster and during previous flooding.]

[[Page 286]]

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

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

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

[A participant thanked the President for visiting and for caring and 
said that the community was one that worked together and that the 
Federal Government had stepped in to fill its role. She indicated that 
she had traveled around the State and 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]

[Ms. Howell thanked the President for coming to such a small place as 
Woodland and said the people of the community had reached out to one 
another and the community would maintain its hope.]

    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?
    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 Woodland and Washington 
having the President come and see firsthand what these people have gone 
through, to bless the efforts that they have made, and to pledge his aid 
is very important. He thanked the President for coming and for the 
assistance he brought with him.]

    The President. Thank you.
    Congresswoman Smith?
    Congresswoman 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 the people 
reassurance that there will be a coordination, that it will be real, and 
that they would turn all the people power into cleaning up. She also 
asked for a direct assistance site, saying the people were stunned by 
the destruction and would

[[Page 287]]

appreciate having someone to talk to directly for assistance.]

    The President. James Lee?

[Mr. Witt introduced Linda Ramsey, Washington State Emergency Management 
Agency, and said her agency was willing to put a disaster coverage 
center in Woodland which would put all the Federal agencies and the 
State agencies and everyone in the same building. He added that State 
and FEMA outreach teams had been going door-to-door in the community, 
working with people as well. Representative Smith commended the FEMA 
Director and the FEMA professionals working 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.

[A participant, speaking for all the local emergency managers, thanked 
the President, the Governor, and the FEMA Director for their response to 
the series of disasters in the area. Another participant added that it 
couldn't have been done without FEMA and the Washington, State Emergency 
Management Officer and Trudy Winterfeld, emergency management supervisor 
for Cowlitz County.]

    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 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 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 a really long, hot spells that are 
quite extreme. Last year was the hottest year ever recorded.

[[Page 288]]

    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?
    Q. 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 about a project to deepen the Columbia River which 
would increase international trade and asked if it 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 both Senator Hatfield and 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 told 
the story of an encounter with an elderly gentleman who said that there 
is so much negative talk about the Government, but when something like 
this happens, we remember why we have neighbors in 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 said the chamber of commerce was concerned about the 
integrity of the dikes. FEMA Director Witt said that the President had 
signed mitigation legislation in 1993, adding 15 percent more money that 
can go to mitigation projects, projects which States do to prevent 
disasters reoccurring.]

    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 two or three miles of identifiable problem dikes.]

    The President. Can they use any of their public infrastructure money 
to fix that?
    Q. 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

[[Page 289]]

Engineers can do that. It's also true they're probably out 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?
    Q. 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.
    Q. 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 the 
people register with the 800 number as soon as possible. He asked FEMA 
to do more active marketing on the 800 number information. Mr. Witt said 
that they were trying via the Recovery TV channel and the Recovery Times 
to get information out to the public.]

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

[A State senator said that the rivers were getting so shallow that they 
could not sustain the flow and the Corps of Engineers had over the year 
built revetments to reenforce the banks of the rivers but in doing so 
had never taken into account the fact that the rivers had gotten more 
shallow. He asked for a reappraisal of the revetments and also asked for 
work on an early warning system for area rivers.]

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

[Mr. Witt said that local emergency management officials could make 
warning systems a priority. He added that they were considering using 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.

[A participant said he thought the town of Woodland owed a thank you to 
the inmates of the Larch Mountain Corrections Facility and all the 
Hispanics in the farm communities who helped avoid an even worse 
disaster.]

    The President. There's another question back there.

[A participant said the work done by high school students was impressive 
and it was amazing to see all the youth in the community coming 
together. He added that he had a tape for the President of the high 
school jazz band.]

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

[A participant said the restaurants in town deserved thanks for feeding 
the flood workers, which they did 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 guys a--he's with us, and he 
needs the exercise. [Laughter] This is part of my, you know, get-my-
staff-fit campaign. [Laughter]

[[Page 290]]

    Q. Happy Valentine's Day, Mr. President.
    The President. Thank you, sir.

[A participant described how after days of working, the crew working on 
the dikes began needing rest and that they had asked for help on radio 
and television and the community response was to have 100 new workers 
within the hour.]

    The President. Thank you. Now, there are two over there. Two people 
over here. There are two over there. You can stay now. [Laughter]
    Q. 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.
    Q. 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?
    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.
    Q. 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 said they had run out of time, and thanked all the 
participants for coming.]

    The President. Thank you.

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