Letter to George W. Bush, President of the United States of America

May 15, 2006

The Honorable George W. Bush
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear President Bush:

As members of the South Dakota congressional delegation, we write to express our full support of Governor M. Michael Rounds' request for a presidential disaster declaration for our state. This declaration would greatly assist South Dakota's recovery from the severe storm that hit the western portion of our state from April 18th to the 20th.

The wet, heavy snow, high winds, and ice brought by this storm caused extensive damage in several South Dakota counties. During and immediately after the storm, power lines were damaged to an extent that left as many as 15,200 customers without electricity. Warm temperatures that followed the storm's conclusion created a significant threat of flooding, for which preventive measures were taken. In addition, though outside the scope of the governor's disaster declaration request, many livestock producers suffered extensive losses as a result of the storm.

As Governor Rounds' disaster declaration request indicates, state and local officials responded to the storm by implementing appropriate elements of South Dakota's State Emergency Operations Plan in accordance with federal law. These emergency operations activities undoubtedly reduced the storm's impact and accelerated the state's recovery from that impact. Nevertheless, the preliminary damage assessment completed by the state in cooperation with Federal Emergency Management Agency officials makes clear that the scale of the storm's impact exceeds the state's response capacity and therefore justifies federal assistance as specified in the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act.

In light of these considerations, we respectfully request that you declare a major disaster for relevant areas of our state and that you instruct federal agencies to expedite the delivery of all forms of federal disaster assistance for which South Dakota is eligible based upon that declaration. We are pleased to offer any assistance that you may require in fulfilling this request.

Thank you very much for your consideration of this important matter. Please do not hesitate to contact any of us if we can provide you with additional information.

Sincerely,

Tim Johnson U.S. Senate

John Thune U.S. Senate

Stephanie Herseth U.S. House of Representatives

http://www.house.gov/herseth/press_051806_delegation.htm