Darlene Hooley: “again, I want to reiterate what this is all about. Last year, they reduced salmon fishing by 60 percent. This year, it…”

“again, I want to reiterate what this is all about. Last year, they reduced salmon fishing by 60 percent. This year, it is almost nonexistent. They can catch 75 fish a week. The only way you can possibly pay for your boat at 75 fish a week is if you can get $100 a pound for it. Well, salmon is really good, but I don't know of a single person that will pay $100 a pound for salmon. So they are not fishing. They can't do it. They can't afford to pay for their boats. They can't afford to go out fishing. They can't afford to pay for their homes. And it impacts the entire community. This is the base industry of these west coast communities. These are small communities. They rely on the fishermen to buy food in the grocery store, to buy appliances at the appliance store, to buy clothing, to buy bait. When they are not operating, other businesses also don't operate. I am happy that we have this opportunity for the $2 million as a placeholder, but what these people need is they need disaster relief. They need this now, and they need money to help them, just like we do for all other disasters that we declare.”