Leonard L. Boswell: “today I come to share with you that Iowa is in a lot of trouble. We have had extensive floods, the worst I have ever…”

“today I come to share with you that Iowa is in a lot of trouble. We have had extensive floods, the worst I have ever seen, in our part of the country, and it is devastating. Since I saw you last, I have spent hours and hours with the United Way, Red Cross, civic leaders, both city, county, State, emergency operations centers in and out, and so on, and it is really tough. We have experienced that before in this Nation. In our Pledge we say ``indivisible,'' and we are. This country will stand behind us, we know that, and we look forward to that possibility. I fly an old airplane, and so I spent Saturday afternoon with one of my staff flying over the various cities, and a lot of them were really tough. When I flew down over Cedar Rapids low level and looked down upon the homes and businesses, at the devastation, the roads out, bridges, et cetera; over Iowa City, the university, with a lot of flooded buildings and so on; and then over to Ottumwa and back up the Des Moines River, it looked like a big lake. A lot of cropland is ruined, over 17 percent, maybe more, and will not produce this year. So we need the help of the country. We need the help of this Congress. And I salute the people of Iowa for coming together. They have come together with determination. I asked one lady in the Emergency Operations Center after telling me all these things, I said, ``How are you doing?'' She said, ``You know, we are like family. We have pulled together.”