-9999

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, as you know and as my colleagues know, our budget process is finally moving.

I wanted to come down to the Senate floor today to say a few words about the need for disaster relief. I am going to talk about Louisiana but not just Louisiana. Two States in particular come to mind: Kentucky and New York. I hesitate to single out specific States because I don't want to denigrate the needs in other States. We have a number of States that need disaster relief, and the way to address that issue, it seems to me, is in our budget bill.

As you know, Louisiana has, like many of our sister States, suffered many natural disasters throughout our history. My constituents, my people, are very tough. They are very tired, but they are very tough. The reason they are tired is because they have been through a nightmare in the past year and a half--I guess 2 years now. They faced what has felt to me like a nonstop series of hurricanes, of storms, of floods. No matter how many times you have been through a natural disaster, I can tell you, it doesn't get any easier to see your home demolished or to see your home flood or to see your business blown away.

That is why, as we are working out a government budget deal--and I hope we can work out a budget deal--I want to make sure that Washington doesn't forget about my people in Louisiana or forget about the other Americans who, through no fault of their own, have sustained damage from a natural disaster and need a little help.

The storms and the floods that hit Louisiana in the last year and a half are not just a distant memory for many of my people. Louisiana families are going to have to live with the consequences of everything the gulf has been throwing at us for a while. That means broken buildings. That means wrecked homes. That means destroyed businesses. That means debris cluttering the streets. And that doesn't even begin to describe the mental anguish of having a hurricane uproot your life and your livelihood and your kids' education and your ability to go to church on Sunday.

I wanted to remind all of my colleagues today of the litany of catastrophes that have befallen my State. I mention this list not to ask for your pity. Let me say it again. Louisianians are tough. We are tough as a boot. We are tired. But I want my colleagues to understand that I am not talking about a simple rain shower here. My people have been through a lot.

In August of 2020, Hurricane Laura made landfall in Louisiana. Hurricane Laura destroyed or damaged more than 100,000 homes. Laura leveled or damaged almost every single building--every one--in the city of Lake Charles.

Then came Hurricane Delta right behind Laura in October of 2020. Delta left more than half a million Americans--rather, Louisianians and Americans, of course--without power, not just for a few minutes, not just for a few hours, for days.

That very same month, Hurricane Zeta tore through Louisiana. Zeta caused approximately 400,000 Louisianians to lose power and damaged many of their homes and businesses.

A few months went by, and now we are in February of 2021. A historic winter storm hit my State, froze my State, and 37,000 people lost power.

Now, even when temperatures warmed, we didn't find any relief because that May, historic rainfall soaked parts of my State. By parts, I don't mean a little bitty corner of my State; I mean big parts of my State. The rainfall drenched Lake Charles. Remember, I referenced Lake Charles with respect to Laura, which had already been battered. Twelve inches of rain hit Lake Charles. You know the result. If you get 12 inches of rain in a short period of time, as we did in Lake Charles, you are going to flood; I don't care if you live on Pikes Peak.

Then Hurricane Ida made landfall in August of 2021. Ida was one of the worst hurricanes ever to devastate my State and one of the worst hurricanes ever to make landfall in the United States of America. The only hurricanes that have matched its strength in terms of wind speed are Hurricane Laura and the Last Island Hurricane of 1856. Wind speeds for Hurricane Ida were clocked at well over 100 miles per hour; in some cases, 120, 135 miles per hour. Ida damaged more than 90,000 homes and caused roughly a fifth of all the people in my State to lose power--and I don't mean to lose power for a little while; lose power for days, weeks, months.

We are still catching our breath, as you can tell, but just as we were about to catch our breath, we had another hurricane, Hurricane Nicholas. It hit Louisiana with, depending on the area, between 5 and 10 inches of rain, and that was only a few weeks after Ida.

Now, after all of these floods, after all of these hurricanes, after all of these storms, after all of these catastrophic rain events, after this terrible string of disasters, FEMA is implementing Risk Rating 2.0, a plan that is going to make flood insurance virtually unaffordable for the people of America and for the people of Louisiana.

Louisiana families--again, we are not asking for your pity. We don't want pity in Louisiana. We are proud people. We are tough people. But we are tired, and we pay taxes like everybody else does. And just like some citizens in other States--Kentucky and New York, to name two--we need a little help.

We need to address all of these needs--not just for my State but for the other States that need help--in our budget. If you add up the damage estimates from Hurricanes Laura, Delta, Zeta, and Ida, we are talking about 130,000 homes destroyed. According to estimates from my State back home, from the Governor and the legislature, Louisiana still needs hundreds of millions of dollars to help fix the damage Laura and Delta inflicted on our housing and the small businesses of Southwest Louisiana. Frankly--I mentioned Ida and the severity of Ida--the damages for Ida will probably cost a little more than $2.5 billion.

We in Louisiana have recovered from natural disasters before, and we are going to recover from these, but we are going to need help to rebuild, just like the people from Kentucky are going to need help; just like the people from New York are going to need help; just like the folks, my fellow citizens out West, are going to need help to recover from wildfires.

I fought before to get disaster recovery relief for my people. I don't think I have ever voted against a disaster relief bill to help my neighbors in other States, and I am going to keep fighting. I urge my colleagues not to forget the people in Louisiana and the people of America who have suffered these natural disasters as we work out our budget.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source