Hearing of the, Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management of the House Committee

Statement

HEARING OF THE\, SUBCOMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT OF THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE
SUBJECT: READINESS IN THE POST-KATRINA AND POST-9/11 WORLD

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REP. TIMOTHY J. WALZ (D-MN): Well, thank you, Chairwoman Norton, for holding this hearing.

I'd also like to thank Ranking Member Graves, and a special thank you to him for the attention he paid and the care in the I-35W bridge collapse in Minnesota; I thank you for that.

And thank you, Administrator, for being with us today.

We're here today to evaluate the National Response Framework, and many of us know a lot of this came out of the response to 9/11 on the sixth anniversary, which we're observing today.

The earlier version had some glitches in it; it was looked at. We're back here today in the post-Katrina, I guess, era to take a look at this, and I think in the right spirit.

And that's why I thank the chairwoman for being here and I thank the director for being here to work this thing out for what's best for America, to find where the weaknesses are, where the strengths are in doing so.

And I want to say I'm particularly looking forward to the administrator's testimony, and I say that -- this is not an academic exercise for me.

Three weeks ago, my district in southeast Minnesota was devastated by flash floods. We saw over 17 inches of rain fall in a 24-hour period in the community of Hokah, Minnesota. Damages to public businesses, private businesses, homes have already run into the tens of millions of dollars.

I toured these areas and I know that the administrator was there; Administrator Paulison was there, and I know you were in Rushford, Minnesota, a town of about 2,400 that was literally almost wiped off the map in the matter of a few minutes.

When we went into that town and saw it, there was a little island of a church, part of a school and a city building where the emergency management was gathering and where the headquarters and the response team were gathering, and both were shuttling in and out of that city right on downtown. People were climbing out of the second-floor windows of their homes to get into those boats. And I say this because I want to thank the administrator for being there.

I said you took a job -- if I'm not mistaken, it's about your two-year anniversary that you took this job, and quite honestly not a very enviable one but one that someone needed to step up and do, being fully aware that there were severe glitches. And what happened in Katrina simply could not be replicated again.

At this point, I'm cautiously optimistic that what I witnessed in southeast Minnesota is what we would hope. I'm noticing the framework here and things like engaged partnership, unity of effort through a unified command, those types of things seem to happen.

And the people in Minnesota were -- quite honestly, there were a couple of things that they were afraid of. They were afraid FEMA would not show up, and when FEMA did show up in a timely manner, led by the administrator, and fulfilled the obligation that the people thought they were going to, there was a sense of real relief. It was a sense of wow, this is fantastic. We need to get this to the point that no matter where it's at, that people come to expect that, not hope that they got the lucky end of a draw or something.

So I truly appreciate that. At this point, I'm proud to say that I think federal, state, local officials handled this incredibly well. We've got a lot of work to do yet. It's yet to be seen, and the judgment on southeast Minnesota will come as we kick in many of the other agencies. But this initial response and understanding how it works and putting these things into play, obviously the southeast Minnesota floods, while devastating -- we lost seven individuals who lost their lives, thousands of homes, tens of millions of dollars in damage -- was not on the scale of Katrina, but the principles of leadership and the framework that underlie that can be the same.

So I look forward to that. I thank you, Administrator, for being here. I thank you for your personal attention to my district and what has happened so far.

And with that I yield back, Madame Chair.

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