Kent Conrad: “I rise today to again update my colleagues on the extraordinary set of disasters that we have experienced in my home…”

“I rise today to again update my colleagues on the extraordinary set of disasters that we have experienced in my home State of North Dakota. As the President knows, we have had really an extraordinary set of events. First of all, the toughest winter in our history with over 10 feet of snow that fell in North Dakota, the most we have ever had, followed by, in the first week of April, the most powerful winter storm in 50 years that saw nearly 2 feet of snow fall in much of the State. It was accompanied by an ice storm that took down the electrical grid for 80,000 people in my State who were without power for a week. On top of that, there were 70-mile-an-hour winds that were devastating. Then we followed that with a flood that has been termed a '500-year flood.' But we are now told in testimony yesterday the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration indicated it was a 1,000-year flood. In the midst of all that, the city of Grand Forks, a city of 50,000, is almost entirely evacuated, the largest evacuation of a city that we have seen in the United States in anyone's memory. Virtually the entire city, 95 percent of the city, has been evacuated and have been told they may not be back in their homes for as much as a month. Truly an extraordinary set of events. Today, I would like to thank President Clinton for traveling to North Dakota to see the devastation firsthand.”