Roy Blunt: “I want to talk for a few minutes at the beginning of my remarks about what the response to the flooding has been in our…”

“I want to talk for a few minutes at the beginning of my remarks about what the response to the flooding has been in our State of Missouri. I was in St. Louis County with Congresswoman Wagner on Saturday. I was in St. Charles County the week before that. I was in Cape Girardeau following up on the work Congressman Smith has done there. I was in St. Genevieve, Perryville, Cassville, and Monette. If you know anything about the geography of our State, those places are spread pretty far apart, but we had a flooding situation that was almost totally generated in our State--different from the floods we normally deal with--and the communities reacted with very little time in an impressive way. The Corps of Engineers was also there to help. The National Guard was there to do what they needed to do. Now we see FEMA and the SBA stepping in to see who qualifies for assistance. There was loss of life. More often than not, the loss of life occurred when somebody drove around a sign that said ``Don't pass this sign'' and then got caught in a situation they didn't anticipate or thought was less than it turned out to be. Some families clearly are grieving that loss of life. We had five international soldiers who lost their lives near Fort Leonard Wood. Maybe the whole idea of a low-water bridge that you and I would be used to was something they hadn't thought about. We had three interstate highways close--Interstate 55, Interstate 70, and Interstate 44.…”