Political Quotes

“Madam President, hundreds of local first responders, 500 National Guardsmen, and hundreds of volunteers in southern Illinois are working around the clock to try to protect homes and communities from the rising waters of the Ohio River and other rivers in the region. I have a photo that shows the devastation, which I witnessed personally last Friday. This is an area of southern Illinois, one that has been hard pressed economically, has been struggling, and now is inundated with flooding. A few days ago when I visited Olive Branch and Cairo, IL, near the southern tip of the State, I saw this flooding firsthand. Homes, barns, and roads were covered by floodwater. Voluntary evacuations have been called for in a dozen Illinois towns, and people are scrambling to find a place to stay with friends and family and shelters to wait out the flood. They worry about what will happen, when they will get back in their homes, and when the kids will get back to school. This is another photo which demonstrates the kind of floodwaters that people are struggling with in my part of the world in southern Illinois. My colleague, Senator Kirk, was in southern Illinois over the last couple of days and has witnessed this firsthand as well. We are both prepared to do whatever we can to help our State and all of the States in the region that have been affected by this terrible flooding. In many cases this flooding is, unfortunately, going to be there for some time.…”