Political Quotes

“Madam President, I rise to discuss national flood insurance today. Flood insurance is vitally important to our Nation. It is vitally important to my home State of North Dakota, and I know it is vitally important to our sister State of Minnesota, which the Presiding Officer represents. Last year, in 2011, flooding in North Dakota included flooding in the Red River Valley, which is the Red River of the north. That included both sides of the border, North Dakota and Minnesota as well. We also had flooding in the James River Valley, in the Cheyenne River Valley, and in the Missouri River Valley. Also, the Little Missouri River flooded in the very western part of our State. We had ongoing flooding in Devil's Lake, and we had flooding in the Souris River Valley. In fact, when the Souris River flooded, one of the communities that was flooded was Minot and the surrounding area. Minot is a community of about 40,000 people. It is growing rapidly. I think it is the eighth fastest growing community under 50,000 in the country now. So it is a rapidly growing, dynamic community of 45,000 people, and last year we had to evacuate 12,000 people from their homes. More than 4,000 homes were destroyed or severely damaged. FEMA, of course, has been in there helping. It is FEMA's third largest housing effort in its history. The largest housing effort was after Hurricane Katrina. The second largest housing effort was after Hurricane Ike.…”