Date: 2005-10-26
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. it has been stressful. and that is the mildest word I can use. last several days. Weboth rode out the storm in our houses in south Florida. I have to say. if I had not been impressed by looking at the aftermath of Andrew. and I live in Broward County and so Andrew did not devastate Broward County like it did MiamiDade County. we got grazed. but if I did not appreciate the kind of power Mother Nature has after observing the aftermath of Andrew and Hurricane Katrina on TV. I can tell you. being hit by an category 3 storm is awe inspiring. When you are cowering with your kids and husband and your family in your home and you are boarded up in your house. it feels like God is literally throwing bowling balls on the roof. It is an emotional. stressful situation. For those of us who live in structures that have been built under the south Florida building code since Hurricane Andrew and have a sturdy structure in which to live. where we were not worried about our homes caving in around us. and then yesterday when I had an opportunity to ride with FEMA on their preliminary damage assessment review and saw the mobile home parks in my district and across south Florida spanning the gentlemans district. and literally see that the ivalls caved in around the foundations of these homes and just furniture was left. Massive trees fell. falling completely over or snap]ing in half and falling on peoples houses. We can urge people to leave their homes as much as possible. but human nature often motivates people to stay with their belongings and protect their home base. I just could not believe what might have happened. The fact that we avoided a huge loss of life is just a miracle. It really is. I have to say. the insensitivity on the part of the Governor as well as the President. both spanning from Hurricane Katrina to Wilma is just shocking. Governor Bush literally said today in our newspaper that he did not understand. and I will quote him: "We had a lot of people standing in line yesterday that we did not like to see. That is why we tell people to have 72 hours of food and water so you do not have to stand in line." That was Secretary Paulison. Then the Governor said he did not understand why people did not heed the warning and get 72 hours worth of food and water in advance of the storm. That is an easy thing to do. Well. I do not think Governor Bush was in south Florida for the several days. 6 or 7 days progress that Wilma made across the continent and saw the lines in advance of the storm. And you know what. if you do not have money. if you cannot buy gas for your car or get to a store. it is going to be a little difficult tostock up on 72 hours worth of food. When I went on this preliminary damage assessment. I will be honest. I am quite certain that a lot of these people could not afford to buy 72 hours worth of food and water. Sothe insensitivity between the Governors comments and the Presidents comments after Hurricane Katrina. The President said something similar after Hurricane Katrina. He said in advance of the storm. we warned people and it is our responsibility to get people prepared. but if they did not listen. there isnot too much we can do about it. I guess like brother like brother. But what is the most disappointing. really. as someone who went through the storm myself and now have had literally thousands and thousands of constituents whose lives are affected who are sitting in the dark tonight as we speak who cannot hear our voices unless they are listening to CSPAN Radio. honestly. it is just unbelievable that last week when we had our Florida delegatiof meeting. to listen to the supposedly organized and wellprepared preparations that FEMA and the State of Florida were putting in place to preposition supplies that people needed. You would have thought that there would not be a kink in the works after the hurricane went through. Honestly. the reports that I am getting are so disturbing. price gouging of over $6 a gallon for gas in our districts. Where is the accountability? Where is the protection from the State government? We have trucks that have been lost for 2 days that they still cannot find. that they bragged to us last week that they were prepositioning ice and water and meals ready to eat in Jacksonville and Homestead. but then they lost the trucks because the only means of communication they had available to contact the trucks was cell phones. Maybe they did not notice. but cell phone towers are tall. and the tall things in south Florida when they got hit by a category 3 hurricane fell down or were damaged. So that means communication went down. No water. no- ice. no diesel fuel. Senior citizens older than 85 years old in Hallandale Beach stuck in their condominiums. the. glass blown out of -their places. no power. no food. The generators operating their power running out of diesel fuel. The mayor of Hallandale Beach had to call an emergency session of the city council and declare a state of emergency within her city so she could get ready to commandeer gas from a gas station to help those people. This is the model State for natural disaster preparation. If we are the model. and we have already seen what the model is not. if we are the model. we have a lot of work to do. 0i 2230