Political Quotes

“as North Dakota's sole Member of this body, I rise on behalf of the people of North Dakota to express the profound gratitude that we feel toward the outpouring of support demonstrated in this Chamber and across the country as North Dakotans deal with the unprecedented disasters that have afflicted our State, most particularly the city of Grand Forks. The city of Grand Forks, a city of 50,000, has established a benchmark in terms of flooding disasters for a community of this size. Never before have we seen a city of 50,000 so completely inundated, so completely devastated by a flooding river. The river in this case, the Red River of the North, which flows normally at 16 feet, maybe 15 feet on a summer afternoon, flood stage: 28 feet; the flooding waters of 54 feet in depth ultimately reached the dikes and inundated this city. It was the flood of record. They are now saying a flood of 1,000-year-event dimensions. As if the resulting inundation city-wide was not bad enough, fire broke out in the downtown business district, and as so many watched in the television footage of the event, a fire department who normally has water as its best ally in fighting flames was rendered powerless by the fact that they could not even get at the hydrants because they were literally under the flooding Red River water that was coursing through the streets of the town.”