The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“MONTANA FLOOD HEROES” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Agriculture was published in the Senate section on pages S3671-S3673 on June 9, 2011.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
MONTANA FLOOD HEROES
Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, the Book of Matthew, chapter 23, verses 11 and 12, reads:
The greatest among you will be your servant. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
I rise today to recognize five of Montana's greatest servants--five Montana heroes.
Our State has faced severe flooding, unrelenting flooding for the past several weeks. As water levels rise, Montanans across the State are stepping up to help. This is the essence of what it means to be a Montanan: stepping up to help fellow Montanans, ordinary folks doing extraordinary things for their friends and neighbors. We are all in this together.
That is why I have begun calling attention to the Montana heroes going above and beyond the call of duty in the floods we are experiencing in our State today.
I want to recognize Pastor Cathy Moorehead of the United Methodist Church and Father Daniel Wathan of Saint Benedict's Church of Roundup. Last week, Cathy and Daniel showed me the flood damage caused by rising waters from the nearby Musselshell River. Most of the town of Roundup has been underwater for days.
I remember many times I had gone to the Busy Bee Cafe in Roundup. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that restaurant might be underwater. A few days ago, it was. The floods have come back again. It is not entirely underwater, but so much of it is, it is virtually destroyed.
Cathy and Daniel took it upon themselves to make sure their neighbors had a hot meal, a dry place to sleep, medical care, and a shoulder to cry on--and it is food not only for those displaced by the floods but also for the National Guard so the National Guard does not have to eat all those rations they otherwise would have to eat.
I have talked to the Guard. They are so appreciative that they do not have to eat the food they otherwise had been given. Ask anyone around, and they will tell you Cathy and Daniel's outstanding efforts continue to be indispensable.
Floodwaters have returned to Roundup, and our prayers are with them all today.
This month, the Crow Indian Tribe also faced devastating floods. Rising water has severed food and water supplies. There is no drinking water. Rushing water has swept away bridges and streets.
As soon as the floodwaters struck the Crow Reservation, Crow Tribe member April Toineeta got to work. April worked with the Red Cross to set up shelter for flood victims. She made sure the Indian Health Service had the latest information about where medical care was most urgently needed. She was universally recognized as the go-to person for help. April. April Toineeta. April has been working 18-hour days, sleeping on the floor of the Crow Housing Authority, doing whatever it takes to help her community. April's hard work inspires all of us to help each other through the floods in any way we can.
When Box Elder Creek burst its banks, floodwaters destroyed the Harris family home north of Mill Iron, just outside of Ekalaka. Neighbors Charlie and Gail Brence hopped on four-wheelers and went to rescue the Harris family of seven. When they arrived, the Harris home was under 6 feet of water, rapidly rising. They offered the Harris family a warm and safe place to stay, a shoulder to cry on, and a helping hand as they worked to save their cattle and salvage personal belongings from the destroyed home. Gail Brence said: ``We're Montanans. This is what we do.''
Pastor Cathy, Father Dan, April, and Charlie and Gail are the best of the best Montana has to offer. They represent our can-do attitude, our willingness to help our neighbor. Our belief is that when times are tough, we know we are the strongest when we work together.
There are hundreds of other unsung heroes across Montana. I am calling on all Montanans to share their stories of ordinary folks doing extraordinary things for their friends and neighbors, whether on Facebook or call my office. We want to hear these inspiring stories. We want to share them.
You know, some folks in our State say--and it is somewhat true--that Montana is really one big town. We tend to know each other. We are big in area, few in people. But we tend to know each other, about one or two degrees of separation. We are really one big small town. We are there to help each other.
In closing, I wish to share a humble thank-you for all Montana's heroes back home. I do not know what we would do without you. Thank you for your service.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.
Flooding in Missouri
Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, Missouri has withstood a number of tremendous natural disasters this spring. In fact, the flood our good friend from Montana just talked about is headed down the Missouri River from Montana, to the Dakotas, to Missouri right now.
We have had floods along the Mississippi. We have had floods of the Black River that required the evacuation of part of Poplar Bluff, MO. We have had tornadoes in both St. Louis and Joplin and now, as I said, the Missouri River floods.
The Missouri River flood is beginning to reflect what has happened upstream with the above-normal snowpack that we do not see much of, but we see it when it melts in the spring. And high rainfall amounts this spring have made the difference in what is happening in our State.
The flooding along the Missouri River, which is about to get to crisis stage, will now join floods along the Mississippi River, the Black River, and tornadoes in St. Louis and Joplin. River levels are expected to rise near record levels and remain there until early or mid-August. This, of course, will put a tremendous pressure on our levee system. The estimates I heard this week were that between now and 2 weeks from today, there will be at least two dozen levees underwater, which means the water will have gotten high enough to come over the tops of these levees, and maybe over 50 levees on the Missouri River before it gets to St. Louis will be underwater and will have water on both sides of them until well into the summer. Of course, that begins to undermine the very basis of the levee itself when it stands in water on both sides.
The Corps and local sponsors are working to reinforce the levees along the Missouri River. We see that the Department of Agriculture and the Corps also have to get engaged to get the damaged land cleared and rehabilitated for all this levee protection to be restored.
There is some discussion on the opening of the levee in the boot heel, a place called Birds Point. That had been the plan, to open that levee in a flood disaster, since 1937, but it had not happened since 1937.
Mr. President, 130,000 additional acres of farmland means at this moment we probably have 500,000 acres of farmland--a little more than that--underwater, and that number will be much higher than that by this time next week. But that 130,000 acres at Birds Point will still be underwater most of next year unless the Corps goes back in, as they committed they would, and gets a temporary levee that becomes a permanent levee in as soon as possible.
We also cannot underestimate--and it would be hard to even overestimate--the challenges Joplin, MO, faces, a city in which the death toll from the tornadoes has now exceeded any tornado in the last 50 years. I think the mid-1950s was the last time this much loss of life occurred in a tornado.
I live about 60 miles from Joplin in Springfield, MO. I represented both Joplin and Springfield in the House of Representatives for 14 years. I had an office in Joplin. I have been there literally hundreds of times. And as a southwest Missourian, I have seen lots of tornado damage, but I have never seen anything like this damage.
I went to the area Tuesday after the tornado hit over the weekend. I think the tornado hit on Sunday afternoon late. I was there most of the day Tuesday. I was riding with a veteran police sergeant down streets that both he and I had been down many times, and neither of us could ever really tell quite where we were because the devastation was that great. Every street looked like the street next to it. The buildings were ground up. The 2 by 4s had become toothpicks. It was almost unrecognizable.
This same tornado, if it would have hit and stayed on the ground for 6 miles in an area of farmland, would have done some damage, but there would not have been nearly as much damage. As it happened, it ripped through the city of Joplin in a swath that was at least half a mile wide and in some places three-quarters of a mile wide. It stayed on the ground for 6 miles and destroyed approximately 30 percent of the buildings in a town of 50,000 people. There were 141 people killed, including those who in the hospitals from injuries since the tornado, because of the tornado. More than 900 people were injured, and 8,000 homes and apartments were destroyed. And I think here the word
``destroyed'' is the right word. Others were damaged; these were destroyed. Mr. President, 8,000 places where people lived 3 weeks ago aren't there today, and more than 500 commercial properties were demolished by this devastating tornado.
Homes, churches, the high school, the vo-tech school, three elementary schools, and the Catholic school at all levels are all gone, and then other schools were damaged. How you get back to school in August and September of this year with those schools gone is a huge challenge, one that a community would assume it would never have to meet, but the community has been meeting it, as have people from all over the country and particularly from our State.
Rescue efforts, led by groups such as Missouri Task Force 1 and other public safety officials--fire departments, law enforcement, medical personnel, the volunteers--have up until now been tireless, but I can tell you they are getting pretty tired.
People in Missouri and across America have been overwhelmingly generous with their time and resources in the aftermath of this storm, and all Missourians are grateful for it. Large corporations and small community organizations and individuals have helped. People have responded to calls on the phone by doing whatever they were asked to do to make a small donation.
The General Motors Foundation announced a $100,000 grant to the Red Cross, along with two vehicles, full-sized vans, and free access to their OnStar service after the disaster.
The Ford Motor Company donated another $50,000 to Feeding America for Joplin, and their employees in the Kansas City plant are assisting as volunteers in relief efforts.
Walmart committed $1 million.
Home Depot and Walmart both had--there was a Walmart supercenter and a Home Depot store that were totally demolished, 100-percent demolished. In both cases, they had late-Sunday-afternoon shoppers in them.
In one store was a man and his 4-year-old and 1-year-old. I am not sure they were on the way to the Home Depot, but at the last minute they were running into the Home Depot, thinking that would be the safest place to be, and those big concrete walls collapsed inward, and the mom who sent them to get lightbulbs or whatever she had sent them to get never saw those three people who were so much of her life before.
The St. Louis Cardinals donated $25,000 to Convoy of Hope.
The Kansas City Royals and Kansas City Chiefs each gave $35,000 to Heart to Heart International.
Duracell opened a Power Relief Trailer.
Tide opened a Loads of Hope location, offering laundry services for the thousands of affected families.
Heart of Missouri United Way collected over $1 million and pledged that 100 percent of those funds that were raised in that drive would go to Joplin.
Target contributed $95,000 to relief.
AT&T and Verizon both gave $50,000.
Sprint, a Missouri company, a Kansas City area-based company, gave
$100,000.
TAMKO gave $1 million. Their headquarters are in Joplin. Their headquarters were not affected, but many of their employees were.
Loves Travel Shop gave $150,000.
Great Southern and Southwest Missouri Bank both donated $10,000.
The Girl Scouts in Houston, MO, were collecting toys for the children of Joplin who had lost their toys.
The University of Missouri produced a tornado relief t-shirt with the slogan ``One State. One Spirit. One Mizzou.''
The Mizzou football team and D. Rowe's Restaurant partnered to fill a semi truck of groceries and other items to send to the location.
The American Red Cross, the Harvesters Community Food Network, sent 14,000 ready-to-eat meals.
The Kansas Speedway and the Highway Roadhouse and Kitchen collected items for victims.
The Ozarks Technical Community College is collecting funds to help people.
The students in a high school in St. Louis, which had its own tornado, sent things to Joplin as well.
FEMA is doing what it can.
We need to prioritize spending.
As I reach the conclusion of my remarks and mention the people who need to be mentioned--I sent President Obama a letter. I spoke with Secretary Napolitano shortly after this disaster insisting that the Federal Government do what we did in Katrina and reimburse taxpayers for their expenses at the 100-percent level. We have gone from 75 to 90, so only 10 percent more, and I will be happy with that number. Mr. President, 75 percent was the first number discussed, but we are at 90 now. The Federal Government needs to do this. And local utility companies need to get the same kind of assistance others have had in similar disasters.
In all cases, the first responders were people's neighbors. Their neighbors will still be there 6 months later when people are still struggling.
But with thanks to everyone who has helped, with appreciation for the Federal employees who have been there and absolute insistence that we do everything we need to do to treat this disaster as it needs to be treated because it truly is a disaster, I will be working with everything we can find to make this situation a challenge the community can meet.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The senior Senator from Rhode Island.
Mr. REED. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that after I am recognized, Senator Whitehouse be recognized--we are speaking on the same topic--for up to 10 minutes and, at the conclusion of that time, Senator Alexander from Tennessee be recognized.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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