Brad Ellsworth: “Less than 2 years ago, a devastating tornado ripped through my community in Evansville, Indiana, and although 25…”

“Less than 2 years ago, a devastating tornado ripped through my community in Evansville, Indiana, and although 25 residents of those two counties lost their lives, our emergency services organizations were applauded for their response to that devastating tornado. There is only one reason that we handled that; it is because we had a disaster plan in place and because we practiced that plan and we worked that plan so that when it hit, we did our job. A few months after that tornado, a much larger disaster, Hurricane Katrina, showed the horrors of these disasters on a more massive scale. In the days and weeks that followed, Hoosiers watched the citizens of New Orleans searching for food, clean water, and a safe place to sleep. With the local government underwater, people relied on the government in Washington to come to their aid. The failures of the Federal Government at that time are far too many to list right here. While we work to fulfill our promises to the citizens recovering from this disaster, we must also prepare for the future. America has suffered massive disasters in the past; and, unfortunately, we are going to see them in the future. As our families prepare themselves for the possible scenarios, Congress must ensure that a failure that we saw before does not happen again.”