Kent Conrad: “a family in northeastern North Dakota--two parents and their 7-year-old--has been without power since Saturday with…”

“a family in northeastern North Dakota--two parents and their 7-year-old--has been without power since Saturday with snowdrifts trapping them in their home. They had to sleep huddled in the hallway to keep warm. Seventy-five people have been stuck in the basement of the Hebron city hall because their cars were pulled off of the major highway going by as that road became impassable. Those 75 people have been stuck there since Saturday. Officials in Cass County, the most populous county of our State, are having difficulty responding to emergency calls because the water surrounding many homes is frozen. So they can't get there by wheel vehicles and they can't get there by boat. There is no way to get to people in order to extricate them. Mr. President, there has been a tremendous response, not only by volunteers in our State but also by the agencies attempting to cope with this disaster. I want today to thank the President for responding so quickly in declaring our State a Presidentially declared disaster. This is our second Presidentially declared disaster of this year. We are only in the fourth month of this year. We already had a Presidentially declared disaster because of the record amounts of snowfall. Now on top of that we are anticipating a record flood. These are truly difficult times for our State. Many homes are still without power. We need generators and fuel to heat homes, make certain that essential services are up and operating.”