Amy Klobuchar: “I come to the Senate floor today to speak about the recent heavy rain storms in Minnesota that have caused significant…”

“I come to the Senate floor today to speak about the recent heavy rain storms in Minnesota that have caused significant flooding in our State. This was not a one-day disaster. This was not a sudden flash flood such as we saw in Duluth a few years ago or a tornado coming in. This was, in fact, a disaster that occurred over a series of weeks where we had rainfall after rainfall after rainfall. From International Falls on the Canadian border down to Luverne, MN, on the Iowa border, torrential rains have washed out roads, bridges, and culverts, damaged infrastructure and caused significant crop damage. In some of our counties, 40 percent of the farmlands are under water. These storms have led to states of emergency being declared for 51 of Minnesota's 87 counties. We have not seen anything like this for a while. It tended to be, in the past, that we had a corner of our State that would see trouble, but here we have 51 of Minnesota's 87 counties being declared a state of emergency. Over the past few weeks I have visited many of these affected areas and seen the damage firsthand. The city of Norwood Young America saw nearly 9 inches of rain in one night that caused more than $1 million in damage to its wastewater treatment facility.…”