Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. REED. Mr. President, last month, my State was hit by the worst nonhurricane floods in the history of the State, at least in the last 200 years.

Our Governor has preliminarily assessed the damage in the hundreds of millions of dollars, which is a significant figure for the smallest State in the Union. This disaster came at the worst moment for my state. Rhode Island is struggling with an economic collapse that has left it with a 12.7-percent unemployment rate and decimated State and local financial resources.

Indeed, many of the homeowners and businesses who were hit hardest by the floods were among those already struggling to make ends meet. I toured the State, along with my colleague, Sheldon Whitehouse, and met with constituents from Cumberland to Westerly,

from the north to the south, as they worked to clean their homes and businesses. We could see the turmoil, as well as their physical and emotional strain and stress. They are tired. They are frustrated, and they are asking for our help. I admire the spirit of people who are willing to pitch in and help their neighbors, and that was evident throughout the crisis. This significant blow came on top of the economic blows we have already suffered. A flood like this is difficult in good times and it is truly trying in bad times, as we have seen in Rhode Island.

I wish to commend FEMA and all the professionals in emergency management who have come to Rhode Island for their help in the recovery. They are doing a marvelous job. The speed of the response, including from Secretary Napolitano, has been tremendous. She was up there on Good Friday looking at the flood damage. The FEMA teams were on the ground. Deputy FEMA Administrator Rich Serino was there. He visited the damage with me. This is emblematic of the commitment of the FEMA task force. It is not only FEMA. It is also the Small Business Administration. The regional EPA director was there, the regional small business administrator was there. We had representatives from the Army Corps of Engineers and the district engineer.

The most emblematic story was told to me in Washington by a Rhode Islander who was visiting. She was a visiting nurse. She said her sister was at home on Easter. She had some flood damage. The doorbell rang, and it was FEMA. They said: We work 7 days a week. Here is the estimate of the damages, and we will be able to help you in this way.

Even with this dramatic and effective response, the damage was widespread. It covered every corner of the State. This was the first time we have seen, in my lifetime and going back a long time, not only surface water coming over the banks of rivers--there are some areas that perennially flood, similar to anywhere in the country--this was groundwater. We had been so saturated with rain for weeks and weeks. When the final deluge came, there was no place to hold the water. It came up through cellars, through sump pumps, through everything. There were very few parts of the State, very few homes unaffected by at least minor basement flooding; in some cases, very major water damage.

The story of the Pawtuxet River is an example of what transpired. Let me also say that in my course of traveling around, I was reeducated in the development of northern industrial communities. I am looking at the Senator from New Hampshire. The development started with a mill on a stream for water power. Then they built mill cottages around that. Those mills are still there. Those cottages are generally occupied today by relatively low- or moderate-income people. The mill owner, I recall now, put his house on the top of the hill, not around the mill. So that is Rhode Island. That is Massachusetts. That is Connecticut. That is New Hampshire. When these waters flood, you perennially get some communities that see damage from surface water. This is the first time we saw this incredible groundwater as well.

We are a community of rivers and mill villages. The Blackstone River is where the American Industrial Revolution began, the Pawtuxet River in Cranston, the Pawcatuck River, the Pocasset River in Johnston and Cranston--they all were above flood stage. The Pawtuxet River, in my hometown of Cranston, on March 15, crested at a record high of 15 feet. Remarkable. Neighborhoods along the banks flooded as homes and businesses were evacuated. I toured those neighborhoods later in the week and saw the damage. Again, along with Senator Whitehouse, I worked to support a major disaster declaration which was promptly granted. The people of Rhode Island appreciate President Obama very quickly supporting a major disaster declaration, not only for individuals but also for public entities, the cities and towns. This is something he did with great speed and great efficiency. I thank him personally.

Actually, the initial flooding was around March 12 or 13. Then we got the second deluge. It was a two-stage event. As the rains were falling, one woman profiled on local television looked in exhaustion at the new furnace she just installed. In anticipation of the second flood, there was an attempt to move vehicles, furnaces, et cetera around, to shore up or raise equipment on factory floors. But the rapidity and extent of the rain was such that the flood was there before many people could react.

Let me try and give a sense of the damage. This horizontal axis runs south-north under the overpass. This is Route 95, the principal interstate running along the east coast. It was shut down for two days because of flooding. The road was completely inundated with water, completely covered. Then, in the next picture, this is the city of Warwick's wastewater plant, totally engulfed in water. In addition to that, the city of Warwick is also home to our airport. So for 2 days, when you got off a plane, you saw a sign that asked you to respectfully use restrooms someplace else or the Porta-John because the airport could not use their toilets. The whole city asked their citizens to suspend flushing for 2 days. So this impact is something we have never witnessed before. The next photograph is the Warwick Mall, one of the major shopping centers in the State of Rhode Island. It is totally engulfed in water and the inside is flooded. These are stores and retail establishments. They are still trying to reopen it. This facility employs about 1,000 people. They are still out of work. When you a have 12.7-unemployment rate and 1,000 people can't work because they have been flooded, that is adding excruciating pain to something that is already difficult. I must commend the owner of the mall, Aram Garabedian. Aram is indefatigable. Nothing is going to defeat him. Immediately, he was in here cleaning up. It is on the road to recovery and return, but this has been a blow economically to the State. As I said, in Rhode Island, because of our small size and community, there are five or six principal malls. Essentially, 20 percent of our mall sector is out of business.

The next photograph is typical of the property damage. This is in my hometown of Cranston. Notice the sign: ``Give this land back to the river.''

The river decided for a moment to reclaim it. This is the result of the surface flooding and the subsurface water coming up. This looks like the entire inside of the home has been destroyed and removed. Here is a hot water heater, a toilet. Although the house is standing, what is inside is basically a shell. This is a homeowner who now has to rebuild their house, essentially, and replace water heaters, toilets. One of the issues we have is that in some of these areas, because of the subsurface flooding, they are not a flood zone. Unless they have recently borrowed money on a mortgage, there is probably little requirement for them to have flood insurance. Typically, in these communities, the houses have been occupied for 20, 30, 40 years by one family. They have either paid off the mortgage or they don't require flood insurance. So many people, frankly, don't have flood insurance. Then, of course, there is going to be wrangling with the insurance companies because, in some cases, where it was just subsurface water, that does not fit their definition of a flood. So depending on your policy, or if you have coverage, there are thousands of homes in Rhode Island that are significantly damaged. The owner has no resources to rebuild unless he gets some assistance. Again, FEMA has been very good for temporary assistance, but we have to look more long term.

Finally, this is Hopkinton, RI, which is part of our rural area in the west. This photo shows the scope of the flooding there. This structure is totally surrounded by water. I was in other parts of this area, in another community, Charlestown. There was a bridge that was closed. As you walked across the bridge on the other side, because of the water moving under the ground, it looked as if someone had dropped a 500-pound bomb. It was a huge crater. Now the town has to rebuild the bridge. Of course, they don't have the money to do so.

All this is indicative of the situation in Rhode Island. A further point. This photograph was taken a week after the flooding. Notice it is sunny. This is a week after the flooding. These owners couldn't even get to their building after a week. This could have been worse in this particular locale because farther upstream there is a dam, the Alton dam. It was overtopped and the waters were going over it. There was so much concern that it was in danger of collapsing that there was an emergency evacuation order for the town of Westerly, which is a sizable community to the south on the coast. They were afraid the dam would give and a major metropolitan area, in Rhode Island terms, would be engulfed with water. Luckily the dam held, and the damage was significant but restricted to flooding along the Pawcatuck.

Within the context of jobs, too, several of our facilities and factories were knocked out. Bradford Printing and Finishing has already let go of its employees. They were underwater. They are still trying to literally get back to work. It has been closed for cleanup. Again, workers are on the street, not because they don't have demand for their product. It is because they can't get to the machines where they are flooded. Another company in northern Rhode Island, along the Blackstone River, Hope Global, an extraordinary CEO Cheryl Merchant, they were flooded in 20005. I was there. I had to take a boat into their factory. This time, in anticipation, they literally lifted the equipment. This is a major producer of OEM for the auto industry, webbing and belts, seatbelts, et cetera. They pushed up all that heavy equipment. The water came in, but it didn't reach the equipment. They are back in production, but the preparations and the cleanup are about $1 million. It is hard for the manager of the plant to explain to the board of directors why they are going to spend $1 million every 5 years just to keep the equipment dry.

We have to do something in terms of mitigation. Even in the best times, FEMA would have been necessary. But we are in a very difficult situation. The State is, as we speak, trying to fill a $220 million shortfall in this year's budget. Again, this is a State where $220 million is a significant part of the budget. It is not a rounding error. They are already anticipating a $400 million shortfall next year in the 2011 budget. The bond rating has been lowered once in the last several weeks. It may be lowered again, if this economic distress and this flood damage can't be, in some way, mitigated and supported in terms of cleanup or reconstruction.

Frankly, my constituents know--and we all have seen similar scenes of flooding from the Midwest, from the Southwest, from the Central part of America--every time, at least in my recollection, this Senate has stood and provided support for those communities.

I have supported emergency expenditures for flooding in communities elsewhere in the country, except really up in Rhode Island because we have never had an experience before of this nature, of this size, of this scope. They, frankly, do not begrudge the aid because, as I sense and as my colleagues and constituents sense, someday we might be in that position where we are going to have to ask for it. Well, we are in that position right now. So for everyone who has been here--and it is a significant number--and asked on behalf of their constituents for help because of a devastating flood, I am joining those ranks. We will have an opportunity, I hope, in the appropriations process through the supplementals to provide additional assistance to the State of Rhode Island, for my constituents to deal with this situation, both the economic distress and the physical damage from this flooding.

So, Madam President, I again thank you for the opportunity to talk about what happened, and I will be back again because, as we have responded to the needs of other parts of the country, we ask that we be given the same treatment.

I yield the floor.

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