Vernon Ehlers: “Madam Speaker, today we are considering H. Con. Res. 488, which commends the employees of the National Oceanic and…”

“Madam Speaker, today we are considering H. Con. Res. 488, which commends the employees of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for their dedication and hard work during Hurricanes Charley, Frances and Ivan. As chairman of the subcommittee with jurisdiction over the National Weather Service, I introduced this resolution 2 weeks ago, after Hurricanes Charley and Frances hit the State of Florida back-to-back, something that had not happened since 1964. The employees of the National Weather Service worked tirelessly during the storms to provide forecasts and warnings to alert citizens and help minimize loss of life during the storms. I have here pictures of Hurricane Frances, and also, in a moment, I will get to Hurricane Ivan. But I would like to point out the immense extensions of Hurricane Charley, covering virtually the entire State of Florida and the entire State of Texas. And almost any Texan in this body would tell us, it is almost impossible to cover the State of Texas, but Hurricane Frances, in fact, would do that. Fortunately, the winds diminished before it hit land, and that helped considerably in reducing the damage, but it was still, because of its large extent, a very damaging hurricane. Last week, Hurricane Ivan hit the U.S., the worst hurricane to hit the U.S. since Hurricane Floyd in 1999.”