Political Quotes

“Mr. President, on January 15, 2017, an incredible ice storm came through my State. For some States that haven't seen ice storms, they are beautiful, but boy are they destructive. As freezing rain comes down, it lands on power lines, lands on trees, destroys the trees, power lines come down, and it is incredibly difficult for families and for regions when this happens. You can't move. You can't function. You can't travel the streets because they are covered with ice. It is very destructive. The northwest part of our State experienced an ice storm like that on January 15. That ice storm devastated the Woodward area and all over the northwest--trees, debris, damage, power out for weeks in that area. Then, in early March, it was starting to warm up. The forecasters from the National Weather Service and the Forest Service saw the forecast coming out of rapidly dropping humidity levels and very high winds, with a lot of debris damage still in the area. It was the perfect storm for wildfires. They prepositioned assets in that area to be able to respond if they broke out, but on March 6--just a week and a half ago--wildfires broke out all across northwestern Oklahoma. Four large fires in particular broke out simultaneously in multiple areas. Some of them were started by some of those same power lines that were weakened by the ice storm.…”