Byron Dorgan: “Today the agricultural statistical folks who have been doing surveys in the Dakotas have told us that the winter…”

“Today the agricultural statistical folks who have been doing surveys in the Dakotas have told us that the winter storms--successive, bitter, awful winter storms that have hit one after another--in our State have killed somewhere around 13,000 cattle in North Dakota. It has been a rugged difficult time for North Dakotans and for livestock producers in our State. I spoke the other day about the kind of bitter storms that we face, almost unlike any that most of us in North Dakota can remember. And again, within the last 24 hours, another storm has hit. Both interstate highways, the east-west highway in North Dakota and the north-south highway, were closed down completely. Snow, 50-mile-an-hour winds, and bitterly cold temperatures make this an awfully difficult time for North Dakotans. Thousands and thousands of volunteers in North Dakota have responded to the crisis. And the Federal Government has too. President Clinton has declared that our entire State is suffering from a major disaster. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is in North Dakota. They are rounding up heavy equipment from around the country to come and help us open roads to help protect the lives of people and the livestock herds. The Department of Agriculture has provided some feed assistance and some other aid to try to help producers get to their cattle and feed them. So we have had some help. But we need more.”