Earl Blumenauer: “beyond the day's headlines of crimes, scandal and foreign affairs, there are still stories of flooding, fire…”

“beyond the day's headlines of crimes, scandal and foreign affairs, there are still stories of flooding, fire, hurricanes, tornadoes and mudslides still in the news. They are much on the minds of the American public. After years in local government and in Congress, I share their concerns about these threats that we face from natural disasters, how we make these threats worse by what we do, and how we learn little from our experience. Mostly I wonder what it will take to provoke a coordinated, thoughtful response from the Federal Government to the challenges posed by natural disasters. For years before Katrina, I had been discussing on this floor what was likely to happen in New Orleans when the ``big one'' hit. My concerns became more urgent as I witnessed firsthand the devastation in Asia from the tsunami. It is not like we don't know what to do to protect our constituents. After the floods in the upper Mississippi River, FEMA in the Clinton Adminisration, under the leadership of James Lee Witt, took a coordinated approach with the natural environment, forming partnerships with private companies, landowners and local governments to dramatically reduce the damage in subsequent floods. We took similar actions in Portland, Oregon. We know what works.…”