Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016--Conference Report

Floor Speech

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Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, wow, I come to the floor of the Senate to talk about a real emergency that just occurred in my State of West Virginia. I know many of you across the country have witnessed and seen the terrible destruction from the sudden flash flood that ravaged West Virginia on Thursday in the late afternoon and evening. I come with such a heavy heart.

When I hear the debate going on again about who is more cynical and who has poison pills, all I can think about is the little boy I saw at the Volunteer Fire Department in Clendenin on Friday. His dad is a fire chief, and he had been going to the fire department all the time since the time he was born. He is about 10 years old. We were standing in 6 inches of mud, with destruction everywhere in his town. I introduced myself to him, and I said: I am Shelley. I am your Senator. How are you doing? He just melted into tears because he was so distraught at what he saw, a place he loved, the fire station just ripped apart. People he knows were kicked out of their homes, trying to figure out how to rebuild.

To me, that is a real emergency. That is a real something we in the Senate and those in the State and those local responders are responding to now. I think about our State, I think about all the nicknames of the State of West Virginia. The one I think I like the most is ``Almost Heaven.'' Well, ``Almost Heaven'' wasn't almost Heaven last Thursday. ``Wild and Wonderful.'' It was wild, all right but not so wonderful.

I think the one that really has come to epitomize our West Virginians, our people, is ``West Virginia Strong''. I saw the National Guard, the West Virginia Department of Transportation, public elected officials, emergency services personnel, and EMTs who were up all night doing very dangerous boat rescues to get people from the roofs of their homes and the roofs of their cars. It came so fast.

I visited the shelter at Capital High School yesterday. A man told me he, the woman he lives with, and their dog just ran out with nothing. It started at his ankles, and 5 minutes later it was at his waist. That is how fast it was. Yet he still had that West Virginia strong attitude of: We are going to be OK. We are going to find a way. He had lost his car, his four-wheeler. All of his belongings are gone. He has nothing. Now he has a place to sleep in a high school gym.

You know what. He has the American Red Cross right there, with 400 volunteers from across the country so he has a warm place to sleep or a cool place to sleep away from the hot Sun, meals, the availability of cleaning supplies, and a very generous community that has come together to try to help him. That is West Virginia strong, and that is what fortifies me today.

When I think of the stories of bravery and rescue, when you look at the 23 West Virginians who lost their lives so suddenly--a little 4- year-old boy, Edward McMillion from Ravenswood, WV, was swept away in the rushing water. We just have story after story of people who didn't know what was going to happen to them, who didn't know how to get out, who found a way to brave through this awful thing.

Then there were the stories of the communities coming together. When we were traveling through Kanawha County, I ran into some people from Parkersburg and some people from Martinsburg, which probably doesn't mean much to the folks in the Gallery or to the Presiding Officer because they don't know where that is, but it is 5 hours away. They just packed up their trucks, put water and food in them, and came to the aid of their fellow West Virginians. A lot of faith communities, a lot of churches, the Mountain Mission, all kinds of volunteers have come to help to be West Virginia strong, to be West Virginians helping West Virginians.

The private sector has really stepped up. AT&T, Sprint, Frontier--our telecommunications people have really gone the extra mile to make sure that people have service and are able to charge their phones. When they had to leave their homes, they might have had their phone in their pocket, but they sure didn't have their phone charger. While that might sound like a little thing, it is a big thing. That is your lifeline to your family--to calling for help and for resources.

Walmart, Proctor & Gamble, CSX, and Dow Chemical--I am leaving people out--also helped out. Anheuser-Busch brought a bunch of water in to help. I have more stories of companies that have given their corporate supplies to help West Virginia get back on its feet. I am basically here to say thank you.

Some of the communities, such as Clendenin, White Sulfur Springs, Rupert, and Rainelle--I actually thought Rainelle's name is Rainelle, and, boy, did they get rained on. They are probably regretting the name. They lost a lot of people in Rainelle. That small community has been crushed.

FEMA has been phenomenal. The declaration from the President, for which we are very grateful, came immediately for the three counties. We are hoping to get other counties, such as Webster County, Roane County, Clay County, Pocahontas County, and Fayette County included in these declarations. Fifty-five homes in Webster Springs were totally wiped out. It has a population of 750. We all know and love the beautiful West Virginia mountains, but when the valleys fill, they fill rapidly and disastrously.

FEMA is on the ground. They have opened up their disaster recovery centers in White Sulfur Springs, Greenbrier, and other places. They will be all over the place.

I will tell people that what I have learned from this is that you have to get registered for individual assistance immediately. Call the phone number, go to the Web site, or go to the disaster recovery center because that starts the process, and help is there. The Small Business Administration is there, as well, to try and help.

The various health departments are providing tetanus shots free of charge because, as we know, sitting water and 90-degree temperatures are scenarios for disease.

What I was astounded by was the mud. We know that you can get water in your home and business, but the mud is just so destructively horrifying to look at and so difficult to clean.

West Virginians need help for all types of different things. People from all around the Nation have been offering to help. We have been inundated with people wanting to help. People want to come and lift up another American and lift up another family. I say thank you for that, but this is going to be a long-term project. When you have the kind of destruction we suffered, it goes on for a long time. During the first week you get a lot of help, but the weeks after that, when people are trying to rebuild and trying to get temporary transitional housing-- these are the kind of things that families need.

Just to give a little perspective on the situation, the National Weather Service said that the rainfall was historic. There was 10 to 12 inches of rainfall in 8 hours. It was a 1,000-year event in terms of the rising waters. I live a half mile from the Elk River, which crested at 33.37 feet on Friday morning. The water rose more than 27 feet between Thursday afternoon and Friday morning and hit its highest crest in 125 years. This was a record-breaking event and very tragic for many of us.

I wish to thank FEMA for all of the representation they brought forward. I thank all of the faith community, which has been phenomenal. I also thank the nonprofits, the United Way, and the Red Cross. I have such admiration and gratitude in my heart for what I saw firsthand and will see as the days move on.

I will close the way I started. West Virginia people are just phenomenal. They are able to pick themselves up and still have a glimmer of hope in their eyes. Knowing that they will be OK and will be able to rebuild after having lost everything is just phenomenal.

I was in a meeting yesterday, and the guy leading the charge from the United Way said: Everybody close your eyes and think about the last time you lost everything. I don't think a person in that room had ever lost everything.

I thank you for all the thoughts and prayers that you kept in your heart for us. We feel them, we need them, and we appreciate them. It is a long road to recovery, but we are on our way. With your help and God's help, we will get there.

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