Frank Pallone: “I want to thank my colleague from California for having this Special Order and talking about the hurricane damage and…”

“I want to thank my colleague from California for having this Special Order and talking about the hurricane damage and what needs to be done in the future. I have to say that the damage to my district was catastrophic. We had many towns where initially at least it looked like the majority of the homes and businesses were wiped out. When we go back and look again, some of them can be saved. But we're talking about thousands of people who lost their homes and many others who lost their businesses. It really created a humanitarian crisis in that first week or so because we were trying to get FEMA in with the disaster recovery centers and with the Red Cross and the Salvation Army. Over the first week, the main concern was just humanitarian, trying to find shelter for people, trying to make sure they had food and water and clothes. I have to say the response was overwhelming. So many of the towns in my district--basically, it was a voluntary effort because in the first few days, it was pretty much the people locally that were doing all those things. {time} 1340 Towns had shelters set up. People were bringing in food, making hot meals. I never saw such an outpouring of support, if you will. And it continues. This weekend, by this last weekend, there were disaster recovery centers set up by FEMA in many of the towns, particularly those that were hardest hit. And I have to say that locally FEMA did a very good job.…”