WASHINGTON DC (March 25, 2019) — I come to the floor today to share a message from America’s heartland.
As you know, millions of Americans in the middle of the country are experiencing catastrophic flooding. My home state of Iowa and our neighbors in Nebraska are particularly hard-hit.
I want to thank the Trump administration for its swift response on Saturday to approve the expedited request for a Major Disaster Declaration made by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds on Thursday evening.
The flooding has caused tremendous damage, impacting more than two-thirds of Iowa’s 99 counties. The federal disaster proclamation will trigger emergency assistance to 56 of those counties, so far.
Gov Reynolds’ team has been in the trenches, working hand in hand with local officials and county-emergency coordinators.
They estimated damages, so far, across our state to be $1-and-six-tenths billion dollars.
The damages estimated for agriculture is $214 million dollars. Damages to homes is $481 million dollars. Levee repair estimates are $525 million dollars.
By all accounts and every possible metric, the damages and devastation are overwhelming. And yet, at the same time, the legendary mythology of America’s heartland and its people is rooted in truth. The road to recovery will be long, grueling, and, at times, gruesome. But I am confident the grit and resilience of Iowans and their fellow Midwesterners will prevail.
Over the last week, we’ve heard remarkable stories of neighbor helping neighbor. And of neighbors helping total strangers. Residents of all ages and abilities rubbed elbows to bag sand to save a water treatment facility in their small town; first responders and good Samaritans rescued people stranded in their homes; farmers moved their neighbor’s grain and livestock to higher ground, volunteers rolled up their sleeves to serve hot meals and deliver water, and, generous Americans across our country opened their wallets to donate money, food, water, hygiene products, and medical supplies.
Iowa farmers not wiped out by the floods are sending truckloads of much-needed hay to livestock-producers and ranchers in Nebraska.
These stories offer a glimmer of sunshine in the darkest hours of the 2019 floods. You might say we are experiencing an unwelcome twist of March Madness along the Missouri River. Despite being mired in muck and mud, it’s reassuring to see the full-court press and gritty resilience of Midwesterners.
Make no mistake. The catastrophic damages to private-property, farmland, Main-Street businesses, public utilities, and critical infrastructure, including wells, roads, bridges, and railways, have extended beyond the capabilities of local and state government.
Aerial footage of our state make entire communities and farmsteads look like an island surrounded by an ocean.
Consider this photo taken last week. You see here a small community along the Missouri River. It’s the town of Pacific Junction, located in the far Southwestern corner of the state in Mills County. Its entire population was forced to evacuate. As you can see from this photo, the rooftops of homes appear to be floating in the muddy waters of a Monopoly Board. I ask my colleagues here in the Senate and Americans listening at home. Put yourselves in the shoes of those evacuated from their homes.
Imagine if this were your home, soaking in unsanitary water, for days on end. Consider for a moment the damages to your furniture, clothes, appliances, and most-prized possessions. Think how much it would cost to replace those items. And now add up the countless hours of hard work it would take to clean up the mess, mud, muck, and mold once the water finally recedes.
Let’s turn now to another photo from near Pacific Junction. Thanks to Larry Winum of Glenwood, Iowa for sharing these photos.
Just think of the small businesses impacted by the floods. The photo here of a motel illustrates how flooding can wash away the livelihoods of business owners and their employees. This particular business will have zero-occupancy, indefinitely. Even if the roads were open, this business will need a floor-to-ceiling refurbishment to replace beds, linens, carpets, and towels. And most likely, significant plumbing and electrical work.
Here is a photo of Main Street in Hamburg. This community was hard-hit in 2011 and is underwater in 2019.
Now let’s examine how the flooding has affected our farmers. As a lifelong farmer, I know exactly what farmers across my state are feeling this time of year. They get very antsy and keep constant watch of the weather, soil-temperature, and planting-conditions. They’ve ordered seeds and fertilizers and are chomping at the bit to get started on field-work. Now, imagine the farmers along the Missouri River.
Tens of thousands of acres of farmland are under water. These acres may never be ready for planting this season. And now consider the farmers who were storing grain in the bins along the Missouri river bottoms. Millions of bushels of flood-soaked grain have spilled into the murky flood waters. This is grain that farmers were counting on to pay the bills to put this year’s crop in the ground.
This photo was shared curtesy of State Representative David Sieck, whose legislative district is almost completely impacted by the flood damages. Thank you for sharing.
My state staff tells me some farmers in flooded areas didn’t get last fall’s crop fully harvested. And now that crop is destroyed. Since March 12, my staff has been crisscrossing scores of Iowa counties to visit affected communities and meet directly with Iowans. They are sharing the feedback from Iowans directly to me, and I am making plans to visit affected areas soon, as well. I am anxious to measure recovery and clean-up efforts to inform my decisions on tax and spending policies that are needed to help with recovery efforts going forward.
As my speech and these photos will suggest to each of my colleagues here in the Senate, we have a long road to recovery from the floods of 2019.
In fact, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a wake-up call last week. We are not yet out of the woods. Not by a long shot. With more precipitation, snowmelt, saturated soil, frozen ground and massive ice jams — we are in store for significant spring flooding that may reach 200 million Americans.
Today I have talked largely about the extent of damages and recovery efforts that are just getting started. It’s important also to talk about flood-mitigation.
Breached, overtopped, or compromised levees span hundreds of miles on the Missouri River in the states of Iowa, Nebraska, and Missouri. It took a long time for these communities to recover from flooding that took place eight years ago. It’s no wonder an awful lot of Iowans are feeling like they are back at square one. Iowans, especially those who live along the Missouri River, want, and deserve, answers. Southwest Iowa communities have raised grave concerns about an unresponsive Corps, specifically about the lack of communication, river-dredging, water-releases, and ordering the town of Hamburg back in 2011 to remove reinforcements of a now-breached levee that left the town underwater. I, too, share many of these concerns.
For years I’ve worked with several of my Midwestern colleagues along the Missouri River to make flood-control the number-one priority for the Corps. It seems to me that misguided decisions and misplaced priorities have eclipsed common-sense. I talked last week with the commander of the Corps in Omaha and shared my concerns about the lack of communication and coordination with local communities. Perhaps a good scrubbing of the Master Manual may help clear wax out bureaucratic ears that haven’t gotten the message: The number one priority of the Corps should be flood control. Period.
I started out today by saying I wanted to share a message from America’s heartland. I’d like to close my remarks by sending a message to America’s heartland.
As Iowa’s senior senator, I will stand with you every step of the way. My staff and I are working very closely with our Iowa and Midwestern congressional delegations; the Trump administration; and state agencies to make sure disaster relief programs are working effectively for homeowners, small businesses, farmers and our local communities.
When the going gets tough, Iowans get tougher. So hang tough, keep fighting and know that help is on the way.
