Harry Reid: “Last New Year's Day, the people of northern Nevada suffered from flood waters that were untoward. We had never…”

“Last New Year's Day, the people of northern Nevada suffered from flood waters that were untoward. We had never experienced anything like the floods that occurred in five northern counties. The State of Nevada, as large as it is, has the seventh largest area, State-wise, including Alaska. It has 17 counties, very large counties, and five of those counties were severely damaged as a result of the flood--Washoe, Story, Douglas, Carson City and Lyon. I traveled over the area by car and helicopter. The picture that I saw is something I will never forget. The Carson, Walker, and Truckee Rivers, small as they are, when the floods came, were devastating. Now, Mr. President, the flooding that we suffered in Nevada was significant. But the flooding and the disaster that hit Nevada was relatively small, as bad as it was, compared to the magnitude of disaster that we have seen in the Dakotas. To say that the community of Grand Forks, ND, is changed forever is an understatement. I had the opportunity the other evening of meeting the mayor of Grand Forks, ND, Pat Owens, and I had heard from the Senators from North Dakota, Senators Conrad and Dorgan, and I have seen in the papers, watched on television, as we all have, the devastation that hit the Dakotas--lives lost, tens of thousands of people dislocated, many of whom will never get back in their homes, 156,000 cattle died; some of them died standing, frozen stiff. Almost 2 million acres of cropland were under water.”