Political Quotes

“Madam President, I come to thank my colleagues as well for this strong vote to move forward on disaster relief. In almost every corner of America we have had unprecedented natural disasters this year, and my State has not been exempt. I represent North Dakota, and we have had flooding unprecedented since records have been kept on the Souris River that goes through Minot, ND, the Missouri River that goes between Bismarck and Mandan, ND, the place where I come from. We have seen absolute devastation, water levels that changed virtually overnight. I can remember the forecast being raised 10 feet from Minot, ND, in a period of 48 hours, a higher water level than we have seen in over 100 years of recorded history. The same is true in the Missouri Valley Basin, with runoff the highest it has ever been. This has led to incredible flooding. This is a picture from Minot, ND, where 11,000 people had to evacuate, 4,000 homes flooded. These are middle-class neighborhoods, and virtually no one had flood insurance. There were only 340 or 350 flood insurance contracts in this entire community of over 40,000 people because they had a Corps-certified levee protecting them that was supposed to be good for a 100-year flood. They had new dams that had been constructed in Canada and dams that had been enhanced in North Dakota. We hadn't had a major flood in 40 years. FEMA is absolutely essential to helping these people get back on their feet. That funding is necessary, but it is not sufficient.…”