    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 17 (Monday, April 28, 1997)]
    [Pages 569-572]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Remarks in a Roundtable Discussion on Flood Damage in Grand Forks, North
    Dakota

    April 22, 1997

        The President. Well, first of all, let me say to all of you that I'm
    honored to be here with the people from our administration. Thank you,
    Mayor Owens and Mayor Stauss, the other mayors that are here. I thank
    Senator Conrad and Senator Dorgan, Senator Daschle, Senator Johnson who
    came in with me, and Senator Wellstone and Senator Grams who met us, and
    Congressman Pomeroy and--and Congressman Peterson who met us here;
    Governor Schafer, Governor Carlson. I also want to thank all the people
    who came with me from my administration: the Secretary of Agriculture,
    Dan Glickman; the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Donna Shalala;
    the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Andrew Cuomo; the
    Secretary of Transportation, Rodney Slater; Aida Alvarez, our Small
    Business Administration; and Togo West, the Secretary of the Army. I
    want to thank the Air Force, the National Guard, the Red Cross, the
    Corps of Engineers, the Coast Guard, the Salvation Army, and all the
    people at the State and local government and the community groups that
    have worked so hard on this endeavor.
        Today we saw, obviously, these two communities that have been so
    devastated, but we know that there is a lot of other loss in North and
    South Dakota and Minnesota. We're going to meet with people now, and I'm
    going to get a briefing from people who have, unbelievably, dealt with
    blizzards, floods, and fires, all at the same time. I have never seen
    that before. And when I saw pictures of some of you stacking sandbags in
    a blizzard, I thought that I had bad reception on my television at
    first. It was an amazing thing. I don't recall ever in my life seeing
    anything like this. And I've been very impressed by the courage and the
    faith that all of you have shown in the face of what has been a
    terrible, terrible dilemma.
        I want to say before we start this roundtable discussion that we are
    going to do everything we can to move as quickly as possible to do as
    much as can be done to help. I want to be briefed by everyone here at
    the table. And James Lee Witt has already talked to me quite extensively
    about this over, as you might imagine, a long period of time now. But I
    wanted to say that there are three things I'd like to announce first.
        First of all, before I left the White House this morning, I
    authorized FEMA to provide 100 percent of the direct Federal assistance
    for all of the emergency work undertaken by Federal agencies in the 149
    counties where disasters have been declared. We will do this
    retroactively from the moment that the counties were recognized as
    disaster areas, which I hope will relieve the State and local
    governments from the worry of whether or not they'll be able to actually
    afford to help citizens and the communities through the cleanup. We do
    this only in the most difficult of circumstances. Normally, the
    reimbursement rate is 75 percent. But anyone who has been here and seen
    the destruction, as I have, knows that this is not an ordinary disaster,
    if there is such a thing. The people here are giving 100 percent, and we
    should, too.
        Second, we are dramatically expanding FEMA's public assistance grant
    program. We'll add 18 counties in Minnesota and 53 counties in South
    Dakota today. And these counties also will be eligible for funds for
    repair and restoration of their communities after the waters subside.
    Let me also say that we expect to make additional counties in North
    Dakota and Minnesota eligible for this assistance as soon as we can
    fully assess the damage that they have sustained.
        The third thing I'd like to say is that today I'm asking Congress to
    approve an additional $200 million of contingency emergency funds for
    North and South Dakota and for Minnesota. I've asked that these funds be
    made available both for short-term emergency response activities and for
    long-term efforts to help the region to rebuild in the aftermath of the
    flood. If approved, this action will bring to $488 million the total
    amount of disaster assistance we've requested for the people of these
    States.

    [[Page 570]]

        Finally, I'm directing our FEMA Director, James Lee Witt, to lead an
    interagency task force to develop and direct a long-term recovery plan
    for North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota. We know that this is
    going to be a long-term effort.
        And when we were coming in today, one of the things that I was just
    noting based on my now 20-plus years of experience in dealing with
    things like this--although I have never seen a community this inundated
    by flood, this large a community--we have to deal with the long-term
    problems. And you have to know that we can be relied on to be there in
    all these communities over the long run.
        The only other thing I'd like to say, Madam Mayor, to you and the
    other officials--you know this already, but a lot of people are still
    almost in shock, I'm sure, and have not had time to focus on some of the
    things which will make the losses most painful, the things that have
    been lost in these homes, the records of family occasions, the letters
    from World War II, the letters from the kids that go off to college, all
    the things that people will have to come to grips with in the days
    ahead. And I know that $488 million or $4 billion wouldn't make that go
    away. But at least we want you to know that we are going to be there
    over the long run.
        And the rest of America has, I think, looked with great compassion
    and pain, but also enormous admiration at the heroic conduct of the
    people of this community and of all these States in the last several
    days when they've gone through things that most of the rest of us can't
    imagine. We could never imagine facing a flood and a fire and a blizzard
    all at the same time. And we admire you greatly, and we're going to do
    what we can to be there with you over the long haul.
        Thank you.
        Mr. Witt.

    [At this point, the roundtable discussion began.]

        The President. First of all, Mayor, and to all of you who've spoken,
    I thank you for what you said and for how you said it and for what
    you've done. And the pain with which you spoke, I think, only showed the
    rest of us that you're speaking for all the people in these communities.
    And I thank you for that.
        I wonder if, Mr. Witt, if you could comment, or any of the people
    that we brought with us can comment on the question of the immediate
    needs--the immediate need for housing, even for basic toilet facilities,
    for these things--these basic immediate needs. How are we going to deal
    with that?

    [The roundtable discussion continued.]

        The President. We've got the entire congressional delegation from
    North Dakota and from South Dakota, and they came to see me as one a
    couple of weeks ago. And I really appreciated it. I don't think even
    they were prepared for what's happened since then here, but they did
    come and made me aware of what was going on.
        And of course, we have Senator Wellstone, Senator Grams, and your
    Congressman, Collin Peterson here from Minnesota. And I wonder if any of
    them, or Governor Schafer or Governor Carlson, would like to either make
    a comment or ask a question.
        Senator Dorgan, Senator Conrad, either one of you have anything you
    want to say?

    [The roundtable discussion continued.]

        The President. Well, let me just say this. I think one of the things
    that we need your input in, to go back to this sort of ``Marshall plan''
    characterization that Senator Conrad and Senator Dorgan used and that my
    Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles used yesterday, we need to try to design
    this aid package so that it gives maximum flexibility to people at the
    grassroots level to do what needs to be done in these communities. This
    is an unprecedented thing, and I will work with you on it.
        As I said, my sense is that the rest of the country has been
    profoundly moved by this. And if your colleagues in the Congress, in
    both parties, will really help us with this--we just need to--we need
    your guidance. You've been out here since Thursday; you know a lot more
    about it than we do. We need to try to structure what we're going to do
    in the Congress in the next few days in a way that deals with it.

    [[Page 571]]

        I think that's why Senator Daschle mentioned the community
    development block grant program or some other programs that gives the
    maximum flexibility to the people at the community level.
        Governors, would you like to say anything?

    [The roundtable discussion continued.]

        The President. After years and years of dealing with things of this
    kind, my instinct is that what Governor Carlson said is right, that what
    Minnesota learned and what we learned in all the Midwestern States that
    were engulfed in the flood of '93 will give us some very valuable
    lessons about what to do in the rebuilding in all the communities
    affected here, with the exception of these two where you've had the
    total destruction of communities of this size. In my experience, we've
    not gone through anything like this. So I do think we're going to have
    to be creative and flexible.
        I just want to make two brief points, but I want to--before I do, we
    have some other mayors here, and I know we can't hear from everybody,
    but Mayor Stauss, would you like to say anything?

    [The roundtable discussion continued.]

        The President. Before we break this up, I just want to make two
    points. The first thing I wanted to ask is a question. Is there an
    estimated time for when the water and sewer will be hooked up again? Do
    we even know? Do we have any way of--anyone know?

    [A participant responded that it would be at least a month before the
    normal water supply was restored.]

        The President. Well, one of you--I think maybe it was Curt said you
    were worried it might take 3 or 4 weeks before people could be back on
    their homesites.
        Let me say--Mr. Witt said something about the trailers, on-site
    trailers, which we have found work best. As soon as we know how many
    people want to go back there and live under those circumstances and how
    many people--the quicker we can do that inventory, the better because
    even if we have to have these made, which typically we do in numbers
    this large, you can get incredibly rapid turnaround. You can turn one
    around--you can order, make, and deliver up here probably within less
    than 2 weeks. They can make a large number on order at any of these
    sophisticated manufacturing places in 10 days.
        So I think we can do our part of that, but it depends on what kind
    of other arrangements you can make for water and sewer and when you tell
    us. Isn't that about right?

    [Director James Lee Witt of the Federal Emergency Management Agency
    responded affirmatively to the President's question.]

        The President. Yes, but we've also got to have the inventory ready
    simultaneously. We could be--we can order these things before the water
    and sewer is back on so that they happen together. That's the point I'm
    trying to make. You can--and that can save people at least a couple of
    weeks. And I know right now, any day, people say, means something to
    them.
        The second point I want to make is to my--basically a request to the
    Members of Congress who are here and for help from the Governors.
    Believe me, everybody in Congress--I think virtually everybody will be
    sympathetic to this request. On the other hand, the thing that bothers
    me that could delay this some, and I don't want to see it happen, is
    sometimes in Congress, when something that is so important, so popular
    like this comes along, other people, for perfectly legitimate reasons,
    think, ``Well I've got something I care about; maybe I can tack that on
    there, too.'' And there may be some other agendas that get caught up in
    this.
        So I would just ask, on a completely bipartisan, or, if we will,
    nonpartisan basis--this is an American issue--if we can get this
    supplemental request through the Congress on its own terms or, at most,
    only with other emergency-related expenditures in other parts of the
    country, so that none of us--and the administration included--we all
    resist whatever temptation we might have to get something else done. I
    think that is the moral and the right thing to do. These people deserve
    help now, and that's the only way to make sure we won't have any
    extraneous debates and won't fool around and waste a lot of time.

    [[Page 572]]

        And I will do whatever I can. But we need--and again, believe me, I
    don't know anybody who is going to do this, I've just seen it happen
    over and over and over again where it seems like it's just an
    irresistible temptation when you think some interest you represent can
    ride along on the train that deserves to go out of the station in a
    hurry. We all need to resist that and do what's right by these folks and
    get it done now. And if we can do that, I think that, from what I've
    seen here today, they'll take care of the rest.
        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 1:58 p.m. in the Enlisted Club at Grand
    Forks Air Force Base. In his remarks, he referred to Mayor Patricia
    Owens of Grand Forks, ND; Mayor Lynn Stauss of East Grand Forks, MN;
    Gov. Edward T. Schafer of North Dakota; and Gov. Arne H. Carlson of
    Minnesota.