[Senate Hearing 112-979]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 112-979
SANDY AND ITS IMPACTS: A LOCAL PERSPECTIVE
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HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON
ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
NOVEMBER 29, 2012
__________
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COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS
ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
BARBARA BOXER, California, Chairman
MAX BAUCUS, Montana JAMES M. INHOFE, Oklahoma
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware DAVID VITTER, Louisiana
FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming
BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama
BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont MIKE CRAPO, Idaho
SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee
TOM UDALL, New Mexico MIKE JOHANNS, Nebraska
JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas
KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND, New York
Bettina Poirier, Majority Staff Director
Ruth Van Mark, Minority Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
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Page
NOVEMBER 29, 2012
OPENING STATEMENTS
Boxer, Hon. Barbara, U.S. Senator from the State of California... 1
Vitter, Hon. David, U.S. Senator from the State of Louisiana..... 2
Carper, Hon. Thomas R., U.S. Senator from the State of Delaware.. 3
Cardin, Hon. Benjamin L., U.S. Senator from the State of Maryland 6
Lautenberg, Hon. Frank R., U.S. Senator from the State of New
Jersey......................................................... 9
Whitehouse, Hon. Sheldon, U.S. Senator from the State of Rhode
Island......................................................... 11
Gillibrand, Hon. Kirsten, U.S. Senator from the State of New York 14
Inhofe, Hon. James M., U.S. Senator from the State of Oklahoma,
prepared statement............................................. 44
WITNESSES
Reed, Hon. Jack, U.S. Senator from the State of Rhode Island..... 17
Schumer, Hon. Charles E., U.S. Senator from the State of New York 20
Menendez, Hon. Robert, U.S. Senator from the State of New Jersey. 24
Blumenthal, Hon. Richard, U.S. Senator from the State of
Connecticut.................................................... 28
Pallone, Hon. Frank, Jr., U.S. Representative from the State of
New Jersey..................................................... 31
Langevin, Hon. Jim, U.S. Representative from the State of Rhode
Island......................................................... 33
Bishop, Hon. Timothy, U.S. Representative from the State of New
York........................................................... 33
Cicilline, Hon. David, U.S. Representative from the State of
Rhode Island................................................... 35
Holt, Hon. Rush, U.S. Representative from the State of New Jersey 36
Harris, Hon. Andy, U.S. Representative from the State of Maryland 37
Pascrell, Hon. Bill, Jr., U.S. Representative from the State of
New Jersey..................................................... 38
Engel, Hon. Eliot, U.S. Representative from the State of New York 39
Grimm, Hon. Michael, U.S. Representative from the State of New
York........................................................... 40
Courtney, Hon. Joe, U.S. Representative from the State of
Connecticut.................................................... 41
Smith, Hon. Chris, U.S. Representative from the State of New
Jersey......................................................... 43
SANDY AND ITS IMPACTS: A LOCAL PERSPECTIVE
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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2012
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Environment and Public Works,
Washington, DC.
The full Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:30 a.m. in
room 406, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Barbara Boxer
(Chairman of the full Committee), presiding.
Present: Senators Boxer, Vitter, Carper, Lautenberg,
Cardin, Whitehouse, and Gillibrand.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BARBARA BOXER,
U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
Senator Boxer. Good morning, everyone. We are here today to
receive testimony from Members of Congress, Representatives and
Senators, who represent communities that were the most impacted
by the destruction left in the wake of Superstorm Sandy.
Many communities in the eastern half of our nation were
devastated by Sandy. Countless homes were destroyed; more than
120 lost their lives. And as representatives of the people
affected, I know that our witnesses today will give us clear
and graphic testimony, so that we truly understand what extreme
weather can do.
Now, certainly we know Senators Landrieu and Vitter brought
it home to us in Katrina. But these events are happening more
and more often, and we have to focus on what it means to our
people.
Many of our fellow citizens have a long road ahead to
rebuild their lives and their communities. We have a duty to be
by their side during this difficult time in the months to come.
This hearing will create a record to this Committee, which
has jurisdiction over flood control and other related issues.
We will explore how we can prevent or mitigate such incredible
destruction in future extreme weather events as we take up the
WRDA bill.
There is a photo we have, I believe, from NASA. It
illustrates why Superstorm Sandy is ranked as one of the worst
natural disasters to ever hit our nation and how it caused such
widespread destruction. Stretching from Maine to the Gulf
States, Sandy brought a life threatening storm surge along the
Mid-Atlantic coast and areas northward, including a surge of up
to 11 feet in the Long Island Sound. The massive storm's
maximum sustained winds were 90 miles per hour, with hurricane
force winds extending outward approximately 175 miles from the
center and tropical storm force winds extending outwards
approximately 485 miles.
According to FEMA, Superstorm Sandy's wind, storm surges
and flooding hit 12 States. More than 8 million people lost
power. Transportation systems in New York, Philadelphia,
Boston, and Washington, DC, shut down, and over 12,000
commercial flights were halted. Communities up and down the
coast were battered.
The Federal Government has a responsibility to help in the
recovery effort. Initial estimates from New York and New Jersey
alone of disaster assistance total more than $70 billion, a
staggering number.
Sandy demonstrates clearly why it is so important to move
forward with our WRDA bill. I have been working with Senator
Vitter in particular, who will become the new Ranking Member,
of course, Senator Inhofe as well, and all of my colleagues, to
make sure we can move forward and authorize critical flood
control infrastructure right now. Because we now have a ban on
earmarks, it has confused the way we can write this bill. But
we have figured it out, working together, how we can get the
Corps authorized to move forward.
There is a new title in our draft WRDA legislation, and we
call it Extreme Weather and Disaster Mitigation, which will
help us to better prepare and reduce risks, whether those risks
are in the Northeast or in Louisiana or in inland States or on
the West Coast. Because they are everywhere.
More frequent extreme weather events have become a reality,
as our climate continues to change. We have to build
infrastructure needed to protect our people, our communities,
and our economy. Following Superstorm Sandy, Governor Cuomo
stated, ``Part of learning from this is the recognition that
climate change is a reality, extreme weather is a reality. It
is a reality and we are vulnerable.''
I wanted to state this is just a little bit of a different
hearing this morning. Because we are really basically making a
record, and I was going to call on Senator Inhofe. I don't know
if he is on his way, but he is not at this time. So what we are
going to do is hear from, first of all, our own colleagues on
this Committee who experienced real problems from the storm. So
we are going to give Senator Carper--I am sorry? Senator
Vitter, did you want to make an opening statement in lieu of
Senator Inhofe? Go right ahead.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DAVID VITTER,
U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF LOUISIANA
Senator Vitter. I will be very brief, particularly since I
may have to leave when the hearing is still proceeding. But I
wanted to be here for three reasons. First of all, to express
our strong support for all of the victims of Sandy, for our
colleagues who are directly affected, and to commit to work
with them on their clear and immediate needs. I know there are
a lot there.
Second, to hear what some of those major needs are, besides
the obvious FEMA recovery effort, which is ongoing,
particularly the flood and storm protection needs. And third,
to begin to explore together ways we can expedite that process.
After Katrina, because Katrina was so big, we expedited a lot
of Corps requirements, NEPA and other requirements, both
through congressional action and executive order. And it
absolutely made a critical difference, and there was no
negative environmental impact that has been noted or documented
in any way.
I think we need to learn that lesson for Sandy. I think we
need to learn the lesson more broadly and see how we can
reasonably expedite important action on an ongoing basis. I
look forward to working with all my colleagues on that.
Senator Boxer. Senator, I am very pleased that as you know,
we have this new section of our bill that does deal with
exactly that. We have been working very closely with your staff
because you are right, we cannot have a halt to fixing our
problems when there are 10 different laws that they have to
comply with. So we need to streamline that.
So here is what we are going to do. We are going to hear
from Senator Carper for 10 minutes, Senator Lautenberg, if he
is here, for 10 minutes, Senator Cardin for 10 minutes, Senator
Whitehouse for 10 minutes, Senator Gillibrand for 10 minutes.
So our Committee clearly had--so many of our members have felt
the impact of this superstorm.
So let's start with you, Senator Carper.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. THOMAS R. CARPER,
U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF DELAWARE
Senator Carper. Madam Chair, thanks very, very much to you
and to our colleagues, and to members of our staffs for holding
this hearing this morning, and for giving us an opportunity to
share with all of you some of what we have been through.
Massive impacts of Hurricane Sandy continue to be felt by
many people up and down the East Coast and to the Northeast.
The images of destruction have been heartbreaking to witness in
my State and certainly in other States, especially to the north
of us. As I have traveled through Delaware, during the storm
and after the storm, I have seen that aftermath first hand, and
we still see it.
I also saw people, though, from all walks of life, pulling
together, helping one another and taking care of one another,
their neighbors. I am grateful for the opportunity to share
with all of you some of what I have seen in our State since
Hurricane Sandy came calling.
Perhaps most importantly, this hearing will help Congress
to understand what we must do to help our States come back
stronger and to better protect us from other storms in the
future.
A while back, I was talking to with a good friend of mine,
and I asked how he was doing. His response was, ``Compared to
what?'' And that is really a good way to look at how Sandy has
affected us in Delaware--compared to our neighbors to the
north, we are doing OK. But Sandy didn't spare Delaware by any
measure. And we have real needs that are beyond our State's
ability to provide.
From the moment it was clear that we were in the storm's
path, I have been grateful for the work of Governor Jack Markel
and his entire team. State, county, local officials, first
responders, American Red Cross, Delaware National Guard, State
police, utilities, many volunteers, all helped to protect
Delaware's residents and businesses from the storm as it
approached and until well after it had passed.
President Obama, FEMA, the rest of the Administration's
team also offered their terrific response, working hand in
glove with our State team. In this case, there was really a
team. And as I like to say, there is no ``I'' in the word team.
I should add that the Army Corps of Engineers has been
particularly helpful in preparing us for and responding to
Hurricane Sandy. Over the years, funded by a combination of
State and Federal dollars, the Corps has built a series of
storm protection projects in Delaware, in the southwest, and in
Maryland, but wide, robust beaches and a strong, healthy dune
system. These types of projects have been criticized at times
by some, unfairly in my opinion, because they performed
exceptionally well during Sandy, likely sparing us hundreds of
millions, maybe billions of dollars in damages.
Natural protection, like these beaches, withstand storm
surge and sand better than dykes or seawalls, while also
enhancing the environment. Although the Corps' projects on our
coast did their job, they were weakened by this storm and now
require repairs so that we are not vulnerable to future storms.
Unfortunately, the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic are expected
to see more frequent and larger storms like Sandy in the
future. That is why we need to find cost effective ways to
ensure that such projects will continue to protect lives and
property.
We also need to look into other adaptive measures.
Wetlands, oyster beds, and seagrass, they are cost effective
and can be sustained for years to come. We can also get better
results for less money if we allow States more flexibility in
managing sand from different sources along their shorelines as
a complete sediment system instead of as an individual project.
This strategy is called regional sediment management, and is
one that I think deserves more attention.
Madam Chair and colleagues, I think you have included some
of these strategies in your draft water resources bill, which I
appreciate, and I hope we can address that later this year.
Unfortunately, other areas of Delaware weren't as well
protected and saw significant damage. I want to take a look at
some photos. The first photo, this is a new bridge over the
Indian River Inlet. The Indian River Inlet connects the
Atlantic Ocean to the inland bays of Delaware. That is a new
bridge; we spent over $200 million on that bridge in the last
several years. A lot of Federal money, quite a bit of State
money.
This is the old bridge. It disappeared. It is gone. These
are the highway approaches to the old bridge. They are gone.
Four months ago, that was how people made their way up and down
the East Coast, over State Route 1. Today, that bridge is
completely gone, along with the highway approaches.
And this new bridge, the approaches to the new bridge are
threatened. We want to make sure, having made a $200 million
investment of Federal and State moneys, that we don't lose the
bridge. I am told the bridge could actually work underwater.
Unfortunately, you can't get to the bridge if it is underwater.
And the beaches that used to be over here to the east to
protect the beaches and dunes that used to be there to protect
the highway approaches to the bridge are gone. And they need to
be replaced.
In addition, a huge breach--travel up, if you will, travel
up the road to the Delaware Bay toward the Delaware River. I
want us to take a look at a couple of other photos. But just
north of a town called Lewes, some of you have been to Lewes,
beautiful town just north of Rehoboth, we have a huge, 10,000-
acre-plus national wildlife refuge. It is called Prime Hook.
And it is an important and maybe irreplaceable part of the
migratory flyway and one of the only places in the world where
horseshoe crabs come ashore to spawn and to leave their eggs.
Severe dune breaches--on the right of this photo, that is
the Atlantic Ocean, or the Delaware Bay. This is the Prime Hook
Refuge; it is a big refuge. And that is a modest breach in the
dune system which allows the ocean, if you will, to come into
the refuge.
Let's look at the next picture. This is that same refuge,
Prime Hook Refuge, the top part of the picture. This is that
dune breach. What used to be a wildlife refuge is now becoming
a lake. Water has surged through the expanded dune breaches,
and is turning a freshwater refuge into a saltwater marsh.
There used to be a road that went through there and
connected the western part of our State to the shore
communities. That is the road today.
We have also experienced widespread damage to stormwater
systems throughout our State, dykes, dams, as far north as
Delaware City and Newcastle. Roads and bridges in various parts
of our State have been damaged or washed out and will need to
be repaired or replaced. Meanwhile, we continue to work with
FEMA, with DEMA and localities and other agencies to determine
the full extent of the damage.
Delaware and its local jurisdictions already have
contributed a large amount of resources in a very short period
of time to prepare for and respond to this storm, and to begin
rebuilding in its wake. Preliminary damage assessments show
that more will be required, and given an already strained State
budget environment, Delaware will need help in filling in the
gaps in funding, much as the Gulf Coast States needed following
Katrina.
Madam Chair and colleagues, to you and our other
colleagues, I just want to say thanks for the chance to share
some of this with you today, to let you know about some of the
impacts of the storm on our State. In Delaware, we have a long
tradition of helping our neighbors, whether they live down the
street or well beyond our borders. For years, we have helped
other sister States that have suffered from disasters, be they
hurricanes, be they tornadoes or floods, or wildfires.
Today, the shoe is on the other foot. We need the help of
our neighbors, not just in Delaware, not just on DelMarVa, but
all across the country. Just as we have been there for them in
their hour of need, we hope that they will be there now for us,
for Maryland, for New Jersey, for New York and other hard hit
States as well. Those of us in Delaware look forward to working
with all of you, and with the Obama administration, to enable
us to recover and rebuild as well as to better protect
ourselves from the ravages of future storms that are likely to
come our way.
Thanks so much.
Senator Boxer. Thank you very much, Senator.
Senator Cardin.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BENJAMIN L. CARDIN,
U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF MARYLAND
Senator Cardin. Thank you, Madam Chair.
First, let me ask consent that my entire statement be
included in the record.
Senator Boxer. Without objection.
Senator Cardin. Thank you so much, not just for convening
this hearing, but for your leadership in dealing with these
issues, not only in responding to the needs of the communities
and individuals who are impacted by the severe weather events,
but your leadership in directing this Committee to look at ways
in which we can make our communities less vulnerable.
Sandy was a devastating storm; 80 lives lost as a result of
the storm, 7 in my State of Maryland. Eight million people on
the East Coast of the United States were at some time without
power as a result of Sandy.
Maryland fared much better than our surrounding States. We
sent a lot of our resources to help our friends in New York and
New Jersey and other States that were impacted. But it was a
severe storm for the people of Maryland. The amount of high
sustained winds was unprecedented in our State. Seventy mile an
hour winds were hour upon hour upon hour doing incredible
damage to our State.
Heavy rains, we had record number of amount of rains from
the storm, 9 inches in our coastal areas. That caused extreme
coastal flooding. The storm surges were severe, and the waves
were as high as 7 feet.
I want to talk specifically about two regions of our State
in which the people today are still trying to recover from the
severity of this storm. One is Western Maryland. While we were
experiencing 9 inches of rain on the east coast of Maryland, on
the western part of our State, in the Appalachians, they had
this blizzard that occurred that dumped 30 inches of wet snow.
Talk about one county, Garrett County. Garrett County is a
county located in Appalachia, somewhat remote, in the
mountains. Total population of 30,000 people. Fifteen thousand
homes were without power. You can do a little bit of
arithmetic; that is every home in that county. Three thousand
trees were down in that county as a result of the storm. People
living in remote areas, not easy to get to, without power,
extremely vulnerable to their public safety.
Maryland devoted the Maryland National Guard, made it its
top priority, 40 personnel, 26 Humvees, worked to save lives,
and they did an incredible job. We are very grateful for their
very heroic activities in saving lives and trying to bring
people into a more normal existence.
At the other end of my State, on the Eastern Shore of
Maryland, they suffered a different type of damage as a result
for Sandy. As you know, the Eastern Shore is pretty flat,
pretty much at sea level. When a storm like Sandy approaches,
it causes severe flooding.
In Somerset County, the people of Crisfield were severely
impacted with the loss of their homes, their businesses; the
agricultural crops were ruined. And this is a very vulnerable
community, Madam Chair, 32 percent of the people live below
poverty. They don't have a lot of options. They don't have the
resources to be able to take care of their needs without
assistance from government. And I am very proud of the
leadership of our State in trying to help those individuals and
the entire team that worked on this.
Many of you are familiar with Worcester County, it is where
Ocean City, Maryland, is located. Nine point 8 percent of the
population of Worcester County is below poverty, and they have
twice the number on average of elderly that we have in our
State. They were particularly impacted by this storm.
Thanks to the extraordinary leadership of Governor
O'Malley, our Maryland Emergency Management Agency, MEMA, and
the full partnership that they brought into being, including
our State and local officials, we had extraordinary leadership
from our county executive, the Maryland National Guard; I was
with them throughout the storm, they deployed the people where
they were needed, they worked around the clock, they saved
lives.
I want to thank the Red Cross also; I had a chance to visit
with them. They were there helping us, and as soon as we were
stabilized, they moved on to the next community that could use
their resources. We saw extraordinary efforts by our first
responders and by ordinary citizens that helped save lives.
We had evacuations, in Queen Anne's County, Anne Arundel
County, Harford County, Baltimore County, Baltimore City,
people were evacuated from their homes. Forty-one shelters were
established; 1,000 citizens were housed in these shelters.
The bottom line is that we can't handle this on our own. I
just want to underscore the point that Senator Carper made, we
as a nation have come together to communities that have been
impacted by these types of events. We have used the Federal
Government and its resources to help bring those communities
back to where they need to be. We were very much in tune, as
disasters have happened in all parts of our country, to be a
good neighbor. We need help today.
I want to thank President Obama for the disaster
declaration for Maryland that allowed FEMA to be available for
public assistance. We have a request in for individual disaster
assistance for the individuals who are impacted. That proposal
is still pending. I am going to be working with Governor
O'Malley to make sure that the individuals who have been
impacted by this storm have as strong a partner from the
Federal Government as we can possibly have.
Madam Chair, I think it is going to be highly likely that
we are going to have to pass a supplemental emergency
appropriation bill. I know that is not in this Committee, but I
do point out that we have to make sure that the resources are
available. Congress will shortly be adjourning; I hope that we
will pay attention to that during this session of Congress to
make sure that the Federal agencies have the resources they
need to be able to deal with the consequences of Hurricane
Sandy.
From this Committee's point of view, we need to take a look
at the environmental impacts. There have been numerous oil
spills as a result of Sandy that are having an impact on our
environment. We have had major problems on our shorelines, and
we are going to need to take a look at shoreline restoration
and other issues. I would urge our Committee to be prepared to
deal with those issues.
As the Chairman pointed out, we have to deal with the
funding of storm infrastructure. You are absolutely right. Our
first obligation now is to make sure the people who are
affected and the communities that are affected, that we do what
we can to bring them back to where they need to be. But we also
need to deal with the public safety issues, because these
events are going to be occurring more frequently in the future.
Let me just give you one example. We have invested in
Assateague Island. Assateague Island has been widened, the
beaches have been replenished because it acts as a natural
storm break to Ocean City, on which there are lots of people
who live, have homes, et cetera. It worked, Madam Chairman.
Assateague Island worked. It prevented a lot more damage that
would have otherwise occurred. I know it is an investment. And
sometimes people wonder why we make those investments.
But we make those investments to save lives and property,
and it did work. So I am going to be coming back to my
colleagues and telling you that we need to invest in those
types of common sense ways that we can deal with the realities
of severe weather. And we also need, Madam Chair, the Water
Resources Development Act, the WRDA bill, I know you had a
hearing on that, we need to move that forward. That provides
areas where we can help with the necessary infrastructure to
deal with flooding and storm damage.
I have introduced the Water Infrastructure Resiliency and
Sustainability Act to provide funding to communities for
projects such as reducing flooding in vulnerable communities.
That deals with particular those communities that have sea
level issues. The sea level is rising. And we have to deal with
that in the way that we provide support to our local
communities.
As I said before, our first priority is to help the
affected communities and individuals to make sure that they get
the help that they need. But I would implore my colleagues to
addressing the problem. The frequency of these severe storms is
increasing, and we can ill afford to neglect the safety that is
posed by these storms. Long-term safety must be our focus if we
are to protect our natural environment and the health and
safety of our citizens.
[The prepared statement of Senator Cardin was not received
at time of print.]
Senator Boxer. Thank you so much, Senator.
I want to say, while Senator Vitter is still here, I know
he needs to go soon, that he and I have discussed bringing the
WRDA bill forward within the first--well, we are hoping within
the first 30 days. That is our goal.
So we really are going to work, and we have been working on
this, so that we don't waste any time, given what we have seen.
I think we are going to have a really strong partnership on
this.
So we are going to go to Senator Lautenberg for 10 minutes,
then Senator Whitehouse, then Senator Gillibrand.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. FRANK R. LAUTENBERG,
U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY
Senator Lautenberg. Thank you very much, Madam Chairman.
I think the fact that we are bringing notice about our
particular storm situations, but highlighting the fact that
across this country, there is no State spared. The more we get
the word out, and get an understanding of this thing, and the
more we cooperate one with another on the Senate and the
Congress, the better chance we are going to have to improve the
damage resulting from these storms, and make life a lot better,
easier, and safer.
I have spoken on the Senate floor and before this Committee
to outline what happened in my home State of New Jersey,
brought on by Superstorm Sandy. The human toll of this storm
defies description. Roughly 8 million households throughout the
region lost power during the storm, including more than 2 and a
half million in my State alone.
FEMA estimates the total number of buildings damaged at
nearly 72,000. There are storefronts, offices, restaurants,
public buildings, homes, and it is pretty hard to imagine what
life is like when your home is gone. Because it is not simply
the physical possessions, it is the memories, the memorabilia;
it is the history of a house.
Imagine these things disappearing in front of you, things
which represented your dreams, aspirations, reduced to rubble.
Imagine having to evacuate and coming home to find nothing
there. The place where you raised your children, created so
many memories, gone. That is the reality for far too many New
Jerseyans. So as we move forward, we must make sure that when
the next storm strikes that this doesn't happen again.
Madam Chair, thank you for your leadership on this issue.
But we know that none of us is safe if one of us isn't. And
we learned a valuable lesson from this storm, but we learned it
the hardest way. When we don't invest in infrastructure, we
leave our communities and our residents in grave danger. That
is why in the wake of this storm, we are working not only to
recover but to build stronger so that we are better prepared
for the next storm.
Today, I would like to take the opportunity to highlight
four areas that were vulnerable before the storm and that we
have to go and rebuild stronger: flood control projects, water
infrastructure, transportation systems, and of course,
Superfund sites which unfortunately New Jersey has the largest
number. So the problem is huge.
I will begin with our coast, where storm surges destroyed
neighborhoods, ruined businesses, displaced families. We found
that even among the damage, however, there is a silver lining
that points to what we can do to devote resources now and into
the future--it is so simple, beach and dune replenishment. We
have been chided about that over the years. Is it just so you
can have nicer, more comfortable beaches? No, this is part of
nature's balance. And when the dunes are in place, the damage
is substantially less. We have seen that, and it was quite an
awakening.
In many towns across the country, the Federal Government
has invested in levees and other infrastructure to protect
against storms and flooding. In New Jersey, the beaches are our
levees. They act as critical buffer zones that protect our
communities from flooding. In beach replenishment projects,
sand is brought in to either widen existing beaches or
strengthen dunes in order to provide better protection against
storm surges.
Up and down our Jersey coast, we saw that homes that were
behind these dunes that had been built up by the Army Corps,
replenishment projects were still standing after the storm,
even when nearby homes without these projects were totally
destroyed. And we see the stark contrast on the barrier island,
the barrier island that we have in New Jersey called Long Beach
Island. In the Long Beach Island community of Colgate, which
didn't have an Army Corps project, homes were destroyed. We see
one of these homes in this picture.
Without the Army Corps projects, when you look at that
picture, to this image of homes that were shielded by beach
projects in Brant Beaches on this barrier island there are
several communities, another community on Long Beach Island,
and you see how well they withstood the storm. And here is
where the storm lost its fury, much lower than the houses were
located.
This picture shows how the dune was constructed so that it
could absorb the storm's force, protecting the homes in the
neighborhoods behind it.
Overall, New Jersey's initial estimate says that damage to
the entire State is at least $29 billion, with costs expected
to rise. And our Governor, who did a wonderful job in the
management of this crisis, brought in additional costs that
they are still uncovering. So it will be higher than that.
But we could have avoided some of that damage if we had
invested in advance. Army Corps beach projects protect
taxpayers by preventing the kind of storm damage that FEMA is
now paying to clean up, and at a fraction of the cost.
So I am pleased that Chairman Boxer's draft WRDA bill
included a program that I requested to allow new projects to be
constructed following a natural disaster. I intend to work with
the Chairman, Chairman Boxer, to charge the Corps to rebuild
damaged beaches, dams, or levees better than they were before,
as opposed to the current practice that the Corps has of merely
repairing or rehabilitating a project to its pre-storm
condition.
During Sandy, we also saw outdated water infrastructure
lead to failures in two of New Jersey's largest wastewater
treatment facilities, releasing millions of gallons of sewage
into the bay and rising river as a result. The infrastructure
in its entirety has to be in concert with what we now know and
can do in advance of these tragedies. Although the sewage spill
has now been contained, the fact that this breach happened in
the first place shows the vulnerability of our infrastructure
and the urgent need to rebuild better and stronger.
And with New Jersey, and the entire country, water
infrastructure is in bad need of improvement and repair. We
must get a significant investment moving forward. Our
transportation network suffered unprecedented damage as well.
Highways, roads, this storm covered everything. We are damaged,
littered with debris. The Holland Tunnel carries thousands of
vehicles each day from New Jersey into New York City; it was
flooded. That transportation is an important part of our
economy and our culture in that region.
The damage to our highways and transit system caused severe
congestion, stranding New Jerseyans and creating delays for
miles. As many learned during this storm, transportation in New
Jersey has an impact on more than just New Jersey residents.
Sandy affected anyone who rides our rails, rides through our
State, or uses products that come from our ports.
So I am going to be working with this Committee--I look
forward to it--to rebuild New Jersey's transportation
infrastructure to make it stronger and more resilient, in
addition to bettering our infrastructure in at least two cases,
flooding from Sandy, damage to the Superfund sites. As I
mentioned, in New Jersey, leading the potential for releases of
toxic pollution into the environment. That is why I have a
letter on the way to EPA to conduct a thorough investigation of
the storm's impact on sites throughout the region.
Today also I am introducing a Superfund Emergency Response
Act, which requires EPA to perform an assessment of Superfund
sites following any natural disaster, and allows Congress to
appropriate that emergency funding to remediate any damage or
toxic release. The bill will also require EPA to come up with a
plan that better protects Superfund sites that are terribly
vulnerable to future disasters.
Last, as we continue to survey the damage, we have to
remember that Superstorm Sandy is only a sign of things to
come. In this changing climate, and the reluctance here in this
Committee to look at the changes in global temperature, it is
very difficult to understand. The intensity of weather like
Sandy, there is more and more to come. And over the coming days
and weeks, we will have the opportunity in this Committee to
make sure that the Northeast recovers and rebuilds in just that
way.
I thank my colleagues, all of them, who have taken an
interest here, in sharing the experience, unfortunately, that
we learned. Thank you.
Senator Boxer. Thank you, Senator.
Senator, I think that legislation you describe is very
appropriate. I am looking forward to reading the details and
helping you get it done.
Senator Whitehouse.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. SHELDON WHITEHOUSE,
U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND
Senator Whitehouse. Thank you, Madam Chair. I will be
briefer than my colleagues, because I was here for an earlier
hearing and had a chance to make a similar statement. So I
don't want to be too redundant.
Hurricane Sandy hit Rhode Island, it hit Rhode Island hard.
The 9.5 foot crest at Fox Point, tidal crest at Fox Point, was
the fifth highest ever on record. And we have 130,000 homes and
businesses lose power, which is a significant portion of a
State of 1 million people.
The southern coast of Rhode Island was hit the hardest.
This is the westerly coast, this is Misquamicut. And you can
see how the hotels and restaurants along the shore were really
clobbered by this. I can remember walking around and seeing,
coming up onto the beach, jalopies, vehicles from the 1930s and
the 1940s that had been buried those decades ago to hold the
beach intact. And now for the first time since then, all the
tearing up of the beaches has exposed them, like old cadavers
from a Hollywood movie coming out of the beach.
Let's go to the next one. This is the road at Connecticut
Avenue that goes along Misquamicut Beach. The sand from all
that disturbance was piled up chest high, and we are still
actually literally digging out from that sand. The damage went
back in the neighborhoods behind this commercial street,
several blocks back. It was a very considerable blow.
Now, mercifully, a lot of these businesses are seasonal
businesses. And the spirit there is fantastic about getting
back and getting up and getting running. The local chamber of
commerce is already taking up local collections to help their
business colleagues get back in operation in time for our next
summer season. So we hope we will be able to greet Rhode
Island's tourists with a wonderful set of restored beaches. But
it is going to take some help.
Let's go to the next one. This is further east at
Carpenter's Beach, where these houses have gone right into the
water. They may not look like very big houses, but Senator
Lautenberg spoke about the memories involved. These are houses
that families have had for three and four generations. And as
you can see, they are close to each other. This is a very tight
summer community.
So the emotional blow, in addition to the financial and
physical one, is really very considerable.
The gentleman here in the green jacket is somebody very
familiar to this Committee; he used to be a member of it. That
is Governor Lincoln Chafee, who was with me, touring the
damage. The lady--I think it was the lady who owns this house
right here that he is looking into--told me that when she was a
child, their house had a big lawn, and then there was a
roadway, and then there was a parking lot, and then there was a
beach. And the beach was so long that she can remember having
to hustle across it because of the hot sand burning her little
feet, rushing to get to the water. But it was a long haul.
So there has been an enormous amount of beachfront lost
that is really a systemic problem in the Northeast, and
particularly in Rhode Island.
So we also toured Narragansett, Rhode Island, where this is
an absolutely iconic, wonderful restaurant out at the point
called the Coast Guard House. It was washed right through,
mercifully structurally it appears to be sound. But it is going
to need a complete rebuild. I know the owner, and my guess is
he will probably be back in operation for a New Year's party,
because he is pretty energetic.
But there is a lot of damage. The seawall, the sidewalk,
this is big for Rhode Island. Because we have tourism
generating more than $2.3 billion, that is the Rhode Island
Economic Development Corporation number, 10 percent of State
and local revenue is tourism related, 5 percent of our gross
State product is tourism related. It is our fourth largest
industry, and in 2009 supported more than 60,000 jobs. So the
economic effect of this is very, very considerable.
I am delighted that the Chairman has held these hearings,
because I think it is important that there be two key points
drawn from it. One is that there is a new normal of new
extremes. We have to be prepared for it. The infrastructure for
the past is no longer adequate for the new normal of new
extremes that we are now facing.
The reason that we have this new normal of new extremes is
because global climate change is happening and is real. We have
tolerated the deniers for far too long in this body. The public
is with us, the science is clear, our national security
establishments, our business communities all know that this is
real. There is a rear guard action in this building, led by
polluters, to try to prevent us from taking action on this.
But we have to face the fact that the deniers are wrong.
They are just plain, dead wrong. Whatever their motivations may
be, and that is a separate question, they are wrong. And we
have to deal with that. And I think some of the courtesies that
we have given to one another collegially really have to yield
to the fact that some of the things that are being said in the
Senate and occasionally regrettably in this Committee chamber,
are just plain wrong. Sandy shows the price of not being
attentive to these facts.
I thank you for your leadership, Madam Chair.
Senator Boxer. Well, Senator, I want to thank you for your
remarks. I feel as you do, that the clock is ticking, and
Hurricane Sandy has shown us all what the scientists sitting
right in this room, the day I got the gavel, they all were
sitting right there. And they told us exactly what would
happen, and it is all happening. And you can close your eyes
and cover your ears and put a pillow over your head, but anyone
with a heartbeat and a pulse can tell that things are changing.
You are right. And we are going to do everything we can to make
progress.
I do want to make one point. President Obama's policies
have reduced the carbon in the air, and will over the next many
years. The amazing work that he did with all of us on fuel
economy standards and enforcing the Clean Air Act, which I just
want to say to my colleagues who are here, and unfortunately
those who are not, I can't address them. If they were here I
would address them on this. The colleagues here and others in
the Senate chamber stopped many who tried to roll back the
Clean Air Act, as it pertained to emissions that were coming
from utilities and other polluters.
That was critical, because we want to be much more direct,
you and I, Senator Whitehouse, I don't speak for anyone else,
on how we approach this. I just feel people have to understand
that the progress that we made, and we have initial studies
that show the progress we have made, only because we fought so
hard against rolling back what my colleagues on the other side
have tried to do on the Senate floor, with environmental rider
after environmental rider. And if they don't see from Hurricane
Sandy, I have to call it Superstorm Sandy, the future, if we
just blithely go along, then I am very disturbed for our
children and our grandchildren.
I just want to thank you, Senator Whitehouse, for your
amazing leadership on this, day after day. People don't know,
every time you see me, you are pushing so hard. And I so agree
with you. With your determination, Rhode Island, you said, the
people are very determined. Well, they have a great Senator who
is determined. I know we will make more progress.
Senator Whitehouse. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Senator Boxer. OK.
Senator Carper. Madam Chair.
Could I just add to something you and Senator Whitehouse
have said? We held up some photographs earlier of the Prime
Hook National Wildlife Refuge. If you will hold them high, we
are looking to the west here. Prime Hook used to be a
freshwater wetlands and refuge. Now it is largely saltwater
that reaches here. The bottom part of the picture is the
Delaware Bay and just to the south, the Atlantic Ocean.
There is a road that you can barely see up there, maybe in
the top corner. But there is a road called Prime Hook Road that
comes from west to east, and it meets the Delaware Bay. That
road is underwater quite a bit of the time now. But it used to
be you could drive out Prime Hook Road, driving toward the
east, toward the Delaware Bay, and as you got to the Bay there
was a big parking lot where people could park their cars or
their boats or their trucks or whatever. Today there is no
parking lot, it is all underwater. You can look out, you stand
there looking to the east where the parking lot used to be,
just to the right about 1 o'clock you can see what looks like a
concrete bunker, part of it sticking up out of the water. That
concrete bunker used to be 500 feet west of the dune lines,
used to be 500 feet west of the dune lines.
You have heard me quote here with tongue in cheek that
famed California climatologist, Stephen Stills, who once said,
something is happening here, just what it is ain't exactly
clear. It has gotten a lot clearer in the last several months.
My hope is that others will see that, too.
Thanks very much.
Senator Boxer. Well, thank you so much. We are going to
call on Senator Gillibrand, followed by Senator Jack Reed. We
are so happy, Senator Whitehouse just opened the door for your
testimony. We are just thrilled that you are here.
But Senator Gillibrand, you and I talked during Superstorm
Sandy on the phone. I know the burden that you were carrying,
along with all my colleagues here. I just want to say that the
citizens of New York are so lucky to have you and Senator
Schumer and others just carrying the weight of Superstorm
Sandy, so that we can fix this and do some mitigation, so we
don't see this again.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND,
U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK
Senator Gillibrand. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman, for
holding this hearing today. I can't tell you how important it
is for the Congress to understand the depth and breadth of this
storm and what impact it has actually had.
I also appreciate all the kind words and your call in the
middle of the storm, giving your condolences for the victims
and for the families that were suffering.
I also want to thank my colleagues who will be appearing
before this panel later in this hearing, Senator Schumer will
come in, who has been a stalwart advocate for New York, and the
rest of our delegation will come in as well. So I just want to
thank you for giving us the opportunity to tell the stories of
what has happened to our families in New York.
Just over a month ago, Superstorm Sandy ravaged the
Northeast. It left a path of destruction that cut across the
most densely populated region of the country, unimaginably
altering the lives of tens of millions of people. In Sandy's
wake, more than 40 New Yorkers died. Millions more were left
with significant damage to their homes and neighborhoods, their
businesses, their families.
Now, as New Yorkers, we have been reading the stories and
seeing it on the news, but for the rest of Washington, the
stories of heartbreak are unimaginable. The most heartbreaking
story was when I went to Staten Island, and we met with first
responders whose job was to find two children. What happened in
this case was, a mother was worried because she had lost power
and her husband told her to find a different place to stay with
the children and urged her to go to Brooklyn to see her mother.
She took the children in the car, but what happened in
Staten Island is the storm surge was so severe, a 10-foot wave
came across the road, her vehicle stalled, she took her
children out of the car, she tried to get them to higher land
and they were taken from her arms. These children were 2 years
old and 4 years old. And the mother could do nothing about it
because the storm was so strong.
Now, she is just one story of many of families who lost
their lives because of this storm. And I can tell you, our
Mayor and our Governor worked so hard to evacuate families.
They evacuated families all across New York. And that is one of
the reasons why the loss of life was as low as it was.
But for each of these lives that were lost, there are many
more. Another story that, you think you have a safe place to
live. In Westchester County, a family had their son at home, in
his home safe. He had a friend over to help him weather the
storm. A tree crashed on the home, and the two boys were
killed, 11 and 13.
Some elderly couples, they just couldn't leave, they
couldn't leave in time. An elderly couple in Staten Island
drowned when the rising tides came into their home and they
couldn't escape in time.
So these are just a small number of the horrible stories
that took the lives of New Yorkers. And I have spent a lot of
time, as has Senator Schumer and our delegation, visiting with
the families and helping them to begin to piece their lives
together.
It has affected communities all across New York. Each of
the five boroughs were affected. The Hudson Valley, Long
Island, the devastation just came across a huge area. We will
hear from more of the delegation from New Jersey as well.
So as we begin to rebuild, folks are looking to Washington
for, how can you help us. I can tell you, we must help these
families begin to rebuild. The devastation is so severe. For
New York families, lives have been lost, and homes are
destroyed, businesses are in rubble. And families have been cut
off from basic services. One of the big stories across New York
was how many families were without electricity for so long, for
weeks. Some still don't have electricity. And obviously as the
cold of winter continues to come in, we are worried about their
safety.
But amid this destruction, I have also had the blessing to
see what is best about New York, New Yorkers are very strong.
They are very resilient. Communities have come together to
rebuild. I can't tell you how many friends I saw helping other
friends, gutting basements, pulling out destroyed property,
having all of their belongings in the front of their homes. But
it was these friends and community members that were giving
hope to families who had lost everything.
Now, we have lost, so far, we have had claims for 305,000
homes that have been seriously damaged or destroyed, more than
265,000 businesses have been impacted. Thousands of New Yorkers
are still homeless.
In the immediate aftermath of the storm, we had 2 million
New Yorkers lose power. And because some families' homes'
boilers were destroyed or electrical systems were destroyed, we
still have many, many homes that do not have electricity today.
Our Governor has estimated that it will be about $32.8
billion to begin to rebuild New York. And that is just for New
York, that is not including the billions required for New
Jersey and other States.
So I am going to take you through a couple of other places
around the State. This is Breezy Point. As you can see in this
neighborhood, the whole neighborhood was destroyed by fire. It
was absolutely devastated. Even a member of our congressional
delegation's home was razed by fire.
One hundred-eleven homes were destroyed in this particular
fire and flood; the entire community will have to be rebuilt.
Since this Committee is so relevant for transportation, I
want to go through specifically some transportation
infrastructure, since I think this Committee will be most
impacted by that request. This is a photo of the South Ferry
subway station. You can see the water, not very clear, but it
has literally consumed the whole subway station. These are the
escalators going down into water.
This next picture is of the Hugh Carey Tunnel. The whole
tunnel was covered up to the top.
This is a picture of rail that was fully washed away. This
is in Westchester, this is what it looks like normally. The
water just literally moved the whole tracks off its bearing.
One of our major areas of jurisdiction is the Army Corps of
Engineers. They will play a major role in reconstruction of New
York's flood protection system. Senator Schumer will, I am
sure, talk more about this. But we have already given them a
list of projects that they have already authorized, they just
have never begun. Or some they have started but never
completed. That is almost a billion dollars' worth of Army
Corps projects.
But those are the ones we know we can do, they have already
been studied. We know they are the most urgent issues.
I just want to conclude by reiterating to my colleagues in
the Congress how important meeting the needs of these families
and businesses is. One of the roles of the Federal Government
is to keep people safe. And when lives are so destroyed, when
communities lie in rubble, when families don't know how to
begin to rebuild, that is really when the Federal Government
makes a difference. So I just want to urge my colleagues to
open their hearts, find goodwill, and help restore and rebuild
New York.
Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.
Senator Boxer. Senator, let me just say, you have given us
the most touching testimony. I thank you because you allowed
your emotions to come to the surface. You put an amazing human
face on this superstorm. And we have a lot of work to do. I
thank you so much.
I am so proud you are on this Committee. How many times
have you run in 4 years?
Senator Gillibrand. Twice in four.
Senator Boxer. Twice in 4 years. So now you have some time
to devote full time to this task. I am so pleased that you are
with us on this Committee.
I am going to call on Senator Reed, and then Senator
Schumer. I want to tell them what we did in the opening, since
we started about a half-hour, no about an hour ago, we heard
from our colleagues in Delaware, in Maryland, we heard from
Senator Whitehouse from Rhode Island. We heard from Senator
Lautenberg and now from Senator Gillibrand. We had so many
people affected.
The purpose of this very important hearing today is for
history, it is for history to record this historic storm. I
personally believe it will be a turning point, I hope it will
be a turning point here in our fight to address climate change
in a way that protects our people.
So we are going to have this record, you will be part of
this record. I look at all of you as my eyes and ears. As this
Chairman, I did speak with Senators Gillibrand and Schumer
during this devastating event, because my heart ached for the
people there. I have gone through so many disasters in my
State, earthquakes, fires, floods, droughts, everything. I know
it is so difficult to wrap your arms around.
The one thing Senator Schumer said to me, and has continued
to say, is how amazing, what a broad swath this disaster was.
So it is hard to wrap your arms around it, but we will.
The second reason for this hearing is for legislative
purposes. We are about to take up a water resources bill. And a
lot of you know--it has been a while since we have had one.
Senator Vitter and I are going to work together on it. He is
going to be the new Ranking, and he is very encouraging about
this bill.
So I think we are going to work across party lines on this
WRDA bill. So with that, I want to again welcome you and call
on Senator Reed. You each have 10 minutes. Say what is in your
heart, what you want us to hear, what you want history to
record about this storm.
STATEMENT OF HON. JACK REED,
U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND
Senator Reed. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman, for your kind
invitation to testify today, and for your incredible leadership
on this issue. I want to recognize obviously my colleague
Senator Whitehouse, who has been such a powerful force, not
only dealing with Hurricane Sandy, but so many other issues in
the State of Rhode Island.
Later today we will hear from my colleagues in the House,
Representatives Langevin and Cicilline. They too have been
actively engaged in weathering the storm and then dealing with
the after effects.
Rhode Island suffered significant damage. A major disaster
was declared in four of our five counties, the south coast of
Washington County, which includes the communities of Westerly,
Charlestown, South Kingston, and Narragansett, was pounded
heavily over several tide cycles. Homes were uprooted, dunes
were obliterated. Sand was driven back into coastal ponds,
threw homes onto local roadways, exposing underground pipes,
septic tanks, and other utilities. Off the coast, near Brock
Island, the Army Corps Coastal and Ocean System data buoy
recorded perhaps the largest wave of the storm, 47 feet.
The island sustained severe road damage, as well as damage
to its docks. In Middletown, Rhode Island, the Rhode Island
National Wildlife Refuge in Thatcher's Point received sustained
significant damage. It is an isolated area, it can't be used,
because the one access road has been obliterated.
But despite this damage, we know the outcome for our State
could have been far worse had the storm followed a slightly
different track. And our sympathies remain with the families
throughout the Northeast, so eloquently and passionately
described by Senator Gillibrand and I am sure also by Senator
Schumer, who have lost loved ones, who sustained devastating
damage, who are still recovering. All America, our hearts
literally go out to them and to their representatives who are
doing so much to help them.
In Rhode Island and elsewhere throughout the region, we
were able to limit some of the losses because we had time to
prepare. So I want to acknowledge and thank the National
Weather Service, which produced very accurate forecasts and
gave emergency planners several days advance warning. I also
want to commend the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency
led by Theresa Murray, the Rhode Island National Guard,
commanded by General Kevin McBride, and local emergency
planners for the work they did in warning the public and in
evacuating areas with the highest risk.
I also want to commend our utility, National Grid, for the
planning and the response. They did an extraordinary job with
crews already assembled and routed before the storm.
Throughout the response and recovery the support from the
Federal Government has been exemplary. Whenever the State asked
for an emergency or disaster declaration, President Obama
provided, often within hours of the request. Agencies we also
quick to respond. Within a day of the disaster, Secretary Ray
LaHood provided $3 million in emergency relief funding to open
roads in the State.
As we consider efforts to support the recovery, I would
note that this was the third major disaster that has hit Rhode
Island in as many years, reflecting this climate activity which
is unusual and I don't think will dissipate. We have had
hurricanes in 2011, 2012, and a major flood in 2010. Each of
these disasters has affected a majority if not the entire
State. The size and frequency of these events, coupled with the
very harsh economic and fiscal climate in the State, has made
it very challenging for Rhode Island to fund the portion of the
recovery that they must fund.
And for this reason, relief in the form of additional
Federal funding through disaster CDBG funding and Economic
Development Administration grants, as well as cost share
flexibility for FEMA assistance, has been important to the
State in the past and will be again very important for post-
Sandy recovery. In addition, resources to the Department of
Transportation's emergency relief program will be essential to
fully restore the roads damaged in the storm.
As we move through recovery and into long-term mitigation,
we should also be mindful of the long-term impacts and
resiliency of our coast and the impacts of sea level rise and
global warming. I believe that addressing these challenges
requires the participation of the Army Corps of Engineers,
NOAA, the U.S. Geologic Service, FEMA and so many other
agencies. I think the Chairman has raised the right issue. This
should be a turning point in our efforts to deal with these
issues on a comprehensive basis, not on a particularized basis.
There are smaller measures, however, that could be taken as
well. In particular, we should not ignore the Army Corps'
continuing authority program, the CAP program, as part of the
response. This includes section 103, small beach erosion,
section 205, flood control, and section 206, environmental
restoration. For States and communities with limited resources,
these smaller scale projects can be enormously beneficial and
effective, particularly after disasters.
I appreciate the steps that have been taken in the draft
reauthorization of the Water Resources Development Act to
utilize CAP authority for post-disaster assessment and
projects. I also want to acknowledge the Committee's efforts to
increase the per charge cost limitations for some CAP
authorities. These are positive measures that we should work to
expand upon.
Before I conclude, I want to note the role that previous
Federal investors have made in limiting damage. We often
overlook prudent steps that are taken before a storm that pay
off significantly. First, the Army Corps of Engineers Fox Point
hurricane barrier. This project was built about 45 years ago to
protect the city of Providence from storm surges like those
that overwhelmed Providence in the hurricane of 1938 and
Hurricane Carol in 1954.
Over the last several years, the Army Corps has made
significant investments to modernize the barrier, ensuring that
it has been able to operate in events like Sandy and Irene. In
addition to the investments with regular operations and
maintenance funding, the infusion of resources under the
Recovery Act has helped speed repair and rehabilitation of the
barrier. This has been very important in ensuring that it could
continue to operate during major storms, literally without the
Corps' intervention we would have felt very vulnerable to the
flooding of Providence with catastrophic effects.
Second, on a smaller scale, a new culvert in Bristol, Rhode
Island, as part of the flood control project funded by EDA and
also part of the emergency supplemental appropriations bill of
2010, helped the town absorb damages. Otherwise, areas of that
town would have been inundated as they are in every storm, some
even minor storms.
So I hope that we follow through with the work of this
Committee to authorize and to give direction to not only
remediation and response to standing, but long-term protection
and restoration of our coastal waters and our coastal areas.
Again, thank you, Chairwoman Boxer, for what you have done
this morning and what you will do. Once again, I can only say
to Senator Gillibrand, Senator Schumer, Senator Menendez,
Senator Lautenberg, and others, our prayers are with you and
your constituents. You suffered grievously.
Thank you.
Senator Boxer. Senator, thank you so much. We will work
with you as we get this WRDA bill to the floor.
Senator Schumer, we are so honored to have you here as well
to be part of this record. So please, you are recognized for 10
minutes, followed by Senator Menendez.
STATEMENT OF HON. CHARLES E. SCHUMER,
U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK
Senator Schumer. Thank you.
First, Madam Chair, let me thank you so much for having
this hearing, for your caring and compassion. As you mentioned,
you were on the phone with us the minute Sandy hit. I feel so
good about several in this Committee, many thanks. But the fact
that you are Chair of the Committee, and you are such a good
legislator and so compassionate about these things gives us
some hope. The fact that Senator Vitter has shown an active
role in many areas and has been through this makes us feel good
about it. The fact that both Senator Gillibrand and Senator
Lautenberg are on the Committee, as well as Senator Whitehouse,
three States affected by the storm, gives us a lot of faith and
hope in these terrible times.
Senator Boxer. And without taking any time away, so stop
the clock, I want you to know that Senator Carper also had
impacts, and he is on the Committee, and Senator Cardin from
Maryland. So it is a Committee that really felt the impact of
Sandy.
Senator Schumer. Right. Thank you.
And I just again, I wake up every morning with a little bit
of a knot in my stomach just thinking about what happened. It
is devastating. The first day after the storm I flew in a
helicopter with the Mayor and the Governor. And you could see
the breadth of the damage. It is so wide, there is so much.
This island, Long Island, has 7 million people. And many of
them live right on the south shore, from Seagate to the
Rockaways and Breezy Point, to Long Beach, all the way up. So
you saw how broad it was.
And then for the 2 weeks, as recently as Monday, before we
came down here, we are touring the areas. And you see the depth
of it. I was on Staten Island Monday, and met a leader of the
Marine Corps League, trying to help veterans. He pulled me
aside and said, I have lost my home, I don't know where to go,
what to do. He is near tears in his eyes. This is a tough,
grizzled vet.
We went to the Red Hook Houses, elderly women, poor women,
on the 18th floor, stuck for 2 weeks, no elevators, no
telephone, no cell phone, no electricity, no food, no water in
the sink or the toilet or the shower. And then you look at just
practical things. You look at Manhattan over here, and there
are huge numbers, 20 million square feet of office buildings
out of commission.
Our hospital, one of the leading teaching hospitals in the
world, NYU, they never expected water to be 14 feet higher than
it has ever been. A billion dollars, they had all their
equipment in the basement. That is where they were told to put
it, when you do these CAT scans and radio tomography and all
this stuff, it has to be very balanced, the machine. So they
tell them, put it in the basement. All flooded, close to a
billion dollars of machinery, gone.
And I could go on and on and on. But we need help. I really
want to thank you for having this hearing. The storm was an
unfortunate wake up call, not only to New York and our
neighboring States, but to the country and even the world about
what we must do to protect our region, fortify coastlines from
storm surge activity.
Simply put, New York has no choice. We must simultaneously
adapt and fortify our coastline to protect against future
storms. We are a waterfront city. We are a waterfront State.
People forget that. But we are basically, the whole southern
area of New York is three islands, Long Island, Staten Island,
and Manhattan. On those three islands are close to 10 million
people, more than most States.
We are connected by a vast array of hundred year old
tunnels and bridges that were built long before the word
climate change, global warming was in anybody's mind. So most
of our infrastructure has been built without the necessary
flood protections in their design. Sandy reminded us of a very
stark reality: we can either invest now, or we will pay later.
I would argue that a refusal to invest earlier in both dealing
with some of these specific problems, but also in preventing
climate change, we are paying. We are paying later, in a sense.
But there will be many more laters, unfortunately, if we don't
do anything.
After touring the damage for the past 4 weeks, we are
paying later now. And we will keep paying later. Lower
Manhattan was blacked out for days. The Brooklyn Battery
Tunnel, longest tunnel had close to 100 million gallons of
water in it. It was totally flooded from one end to the other.
Unbelievable, who would have thought it?
The southern shore of Staten Island, the Rockaways
battered. Long Beach, 35,000 people, every house flooded.
Seagate, 8,000 people, every house flooded. The Rockaways,
100,000 people, most homes flooded. The flooding came in not
only from the ocean side, but from the bay side. You thought,
well, I live five, six blocks from the ocean. In Bell Harbor it
came both ways and met in the middle and many other places as
well.
So huge, and to compare it to Katrina, Katrina lost more
lives. We lost too many lives, but not close to Katrina. But in
other ways, it is much more devastating than Katrina. Right now
in New York, 305,000 homes are seriously damaged or gone.
Kirsten showed the pictures of some of them that are just gone,
by fire. Because the water systems failed and the wind, then
the electrical systems got shorted, fire, wind.
And so 305,000 homes seriously damaged or gone, just in New
York, up to now. There are going to be more that we will learn
about, because the flooding is still there in lots of the
basements. These are low lying houses. There were 214,000 total
homes gone in Katrina, of the same level of damage. Businesses,
265,000. This is just New York. Bob will talk about and Frank
talked about New Jersey, which has similar levels of damage.
In Katrina, 18,000 businesses. Because of the density of
the population, it is a much greater economic impact on our
region, of course, and on the nation than otherwise.
So despite all this pain, we can't entirely fault those who
came before us for building this great metropolis without
adequate flood protections. The threat was not the same. The
technology of flood protection was not what it is today. And at
the same time, we know that the 105, 100 year floods were rare
events. And now they are every few years.
So where does that bring us? In the days since Sandy, much
has been made about what future flood protections New York
needs to adapt to the new 21st century climate. Three are a
vast array of opinions and ideas, from one extreme to the
other. And I commend my colleagues in government and academia
for having the courage to think outside the box in advocating
for the future New York.
Some preliminary research has suggested a Dutch-like system
of floodgates in New York Harbor as an expensive but feasible
alternative. Others are pushing for a retreat from the
coastline. But a retreat is not just a couple of hundred
houses. It is hundreds of thousands of people. That is a huge
demographic, anthropological, sociological, and economic
change. You have to be careful before you just quickly advocate
that.
To members of this Committee, I say we should not be
victims of these two choices only, which may be extreme. So
today I am recommending to you a comprehensive Federal approach
to protecting New York's coastline well into the future. It
consists of three basic principles. To protect ourselves in the
future, we must accelerate, study, and streamline, and then
build. We can no longer be burdened by rule that were written
before massive floods were common and a process that was
created before storms of the century happened every 10 years.
First, we must fast track and build projects that Congress
has already authorized and that the Corps has studied.
Fortunately, there are a bunch of these projects, and they are
noted here. Can you see this? Should we hold it up a little?
These are seven projects already studied and already
authorized.
Some of them were rejected by the local communities. Long
Beach, 35,000 people, none of whose homes were unaffected, they
were going to build dunes. A small group of homeowners objected
in 2005, and they didn't do it. But this proposal is there, the
study is there. I have spoken to the elected officials, the
city manager, they are ready to go. All we need is funding,
because they are already authorized and studied.
And there are other projects as well, on the south shore of
Staten Island, in Rockaway, Gilgo Beach, Coney Island, Fire
Island, and Asharoken.
So this concept referred to accelerate to construction is
what New York needs now. We estimate the amount of money is
about $500 million to a billion dollars for these seven
projects. No red tape, no study, because it has been studied.
Community support in every one of them. We are going to put
that in the supplemental bill, but obviously your Committee
will review it.
Why do we need it now? Because in some of our most badly
damaged areas, south shore of Staten Island, Long Beach,
Suffolk County, you have no protection. A storm, a minor storm
could come flood again. So we have to move quickly.
In some places, they wanted to build seawalls, some places
rock armor, some places dune systems. Along the coast, like
Midlid Beach in Staten Island, where surges over 10 feet came
in. And in other coastal areas, Coney Island, the Rockaways,
Gilgo, some of the projects were even partially built. But then
there was no funding, and that ended.
Now, here is the good news. We know from Sandy that many
places that had engineering protections that the Army Corps had
designed fared much, much better. Point Lookout, which is right
here, did much better than the neighboring areas, because they
actually had Army Corps built-in protections.
The same, I am told, in parts of New Jersey. So this works.
So we have requested the Army Corps to accelerate.
Second--and I will try to hurry this along, Madam Chair--
second, we have to immediately authorize and fund a
comprehensive hurricane protection study of New York Harbor and
the surrounding region. These protections aren't enough. We
need the Army Corps to start right away and do a study. They
did that in New Orleans, and then they built a series of levees
and barriers and island dunes and seawalls. They did it in
Houston. That is why a comprehensive study in partnership with
the Governors of New York, New Jersey, port authority, MTA, and
city of New York must commence immediately. We are asking the
President to put that in the supplemental legislation he will
introduce early next week.
There are many ideas out there. And third, we must reform
the Federal flood protection process that the Army Corps
currently operates. Let me be blunt: the process in many places
in many ways is badly broken. Projects take years and decades,
because of a mound of red tape and lack of funding. Senator
Vitter has been very active in this area. And he has been a
vocal proponent for a leaner, more efficient Army Corps. We
look to work with you, Madam Chair, and him to move forward.
So if we can do these three things, we can protect New York
from future devastating storms, we can protect New Jersey as
well, and we would work with them on that. So I hope that the
Committee will look favorably on our accelerate, study, and
streamline proposal.
I thank the Chair.
Senator Boxer. Thank you. I want to mention that everything
that you have said is going to be in one way or another part of
our WRDA bill. So as Kirsten Gillibrand, Senator Gillibrand
works with us, we will consult with all of you. Because we
don't have any earmarks any more, you all know that. And let me
just say, for the 10th time, I think that was ridiculous, so-
called reform. What it means is that we can't--we who know--if
anything I am getting out of this listening to all of you is,
you know every corner and every nook and cranny of where the
problem occurred. Unfortunately, because there is no more
earmarks, we have to leave it up to the Administration.
However, something you said is important. A lot of the
projects that haven't gone forward have engineers' reports,
many are authorized. And our WRDA bill will be able, without
naming the projects, to move those forward, which is very
important.
And in terms of accelerating, we have a new draft proposal
to respond to these extreme weather events, Senator Schumer,
which would enable us to have the Corps move very, very
quickly. Because there are 10 different laws that come into
play. And in rebuilding and mitigating future storms, we just
can't afford to have this time lag.
So I want to thank you so much.
I want to welcome Senators Menendez and Senator Blumenthal.
I want to say that what we are doing here is, we are making an
historic record of this storm. Personally, I think it is a
turning point in our approach to climate change, I hope it is.
I am going to make sure all of you have books of this record
today. It is how important I think it is. You are the
eyewitnesses, you represent the people. We can't have millions
of people here testifying. But your testimony is so critical.
And you will be part of this record.
We also are using this hearing as a way to finalize our
WRDA bill, which will be coming forward very early in the next
session.
Senator Menendez, welcome, you have 10 minutes. We are very
happy that you could take the time to be here.
STATEMENT OF HON. ROBERT MENENDEZ,
U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY
Senator Menendez. Madam Chair, first of all, thank you for
your personal expressions of concern soon after the storm. I
appreciate it, as do the people of my State.
And thank you for your leadership, as well as Senator
Inhofe and other distinguished members of the Committee, for
giving us a forum to explain just how devastating Superstorm
Sandy was to our region and to highlight the help that we need
to rebuild.
New Jersey was at the epicenter of the storm's entry. And
the powerful storm surge overwhelmed our State, and the result
is damage on a massive scale. As someone who has lived in New
Jersey his entire life, I have never seen the devastation that
Sandy brought us.
The numbers are pretty staggering across the region. In New
Jersey, we lost 39 people's lives to the storm. Based on
preliminary--and I emphasize that--preliminary FEMA estimates,
there are over 231,000 applications for homes and businesses in
New Jersey that were damaged. But we certainly expect that the
numbers will surge much higher.
Over half of the State, 2.7 million households, lost power.
Many for extended periods of time, some still today. The storm
was the largest mass transit disaster in our nation's history,
4 out of 10 of the nation's transit riders had their commutes
disrupted by the storm, many still today. New Jersey Transit
alone had dozens of locomotives and rail cars damaged in the
flooding, and miles and miles of tracks damaged.
The preliminary damage estimate provided by the State is
now up to $36.9 billion in damage, and everyone expects that
number to rise.
Those are the numbers. And in one way they may be a way to
quantify the damage, but they fail to paint a picture of what
we have seen throughout the State. The level of destruction,
the faces of the many thousands of displaced people who find
themselves homeless and with basically nothing left from their
homes, their possessions, their lifetime keepsakes gone. Entire
neighborhoods whose several generations of families live in
close knit communities, gone. Thousands of decades old small
businesses ruined, their owners unsure if they will have the
ability or the means to rebuild.
And we are getting more damage numbers, but the human toll
is truly incalculable.
The sheer scope of the damage is also difficult to fathom.
And I have seen it from the air, from the water, on foot. And
the breadth and scope it, we have hosted the President and the
Vice President and a whole host of Cabinet officials. We
appreciate the Administration's many visits to get a sense of
it.
But my staff has compiled some pictures here that I would
like to show you to give you a sense. This is the Mantoloking
Bridge which crosses Barnegat Bay and crosses Brick with
Mantoloking. As you can see in the picture, the storm surge
ripped a gash right through Mantoloking. Amazingly, this bridge
can be repaired. But it is obvious in this picture many of the
surrounding homes were lost, and part of the highway will need
to be rebuilt.
On a boat tour of the area I saw damage for myself and took
this picture of a house floating down the river. It is only one
of many. This is a shipping container and a large pleasure boat
tossed onto the Morgan rail bridge on the New Jersey coastline,
along with tons of debris. It is a major rail intersection that
moves so many New Jerseyans across the State. It took a lot of
work to restore service on New Jersey Transit, which suffered
disruptions on every rail line. This is only by way of example
one.
Even today, the Port Authority's PATH Terminal at Hoboken
is inoperable and will not be back online for some time. This
is a live video of what took place on that evening with Port
Authority cameras giving you a sense of the flooding that took
place in the terminal. And just gives you a sense of how deep
the flooding took place. This is as you go right into the
tracks, the level of flooding that was taking place. Those are
the PATH Terminals where you would obviously board a PATH train
along New York City or along the coast. Tens of thousands today
still cannot use that terminal.
In addition to transportation damage, many small businesses
in New Jersey are facing the possibility of going out of
business. Some were hit with thousands of dollars in lost
business, while others saw their entire inventory destroyed.
Interestingly enough, I had a visit from the head of the
federally qualified health centers in our State, there are 20.
They suffered as well, because they had a whole period of time
in which they were closed. So the revenue stream for them
during this whole period of time has affected them. Many of
them, of course, were damaged as well.
So while the SBA has low interest loan programs, which I
have to be honest with you, are pretty close to commercial
rates today, that is not going to help the hardest hit
businesses. These entrepreneurs that fuel our economy have been
hit with a one-two punch. First they had the great recession,
and now, just as we are beginning to recover, and they were
seeing the light in the tunnel, that tunnel gets flooded on
them with a debilitating storm.
So whether it is through flexibility in the Community
Development Block Grant program, which you have a history of
with Hurricane Katrina, or a new disaster recovery block grant,
or through more flexible SBA or other programs, we should
provide grants to get small businesses back on their feet. This
will not only help the small business owners themselves, it
will keep the workers on the job, bring back tax revenue for
local governments to repair and rebuild and restore a sense of
normalcy for our communities.
We were already at over 9 percent unemployment before the
storm. And if history teaches us anything from Hurricane
Katrina, it is that unemployment dramatically rose
subsequently. That is a big challenge.
To economically rebuild New Jersey, we also need to rebuild
the Jersey Shore. That is a $38 billion tourism economy in our
State. The Jersey Shore isn't just about summer homes--that
sometimes is a huge misconception. It has been transformed into
year-round communities.
The next two slides show the importance of some of what
Senator Schumer was talking about, Army Corps on our shoreline.
Stockton College did a study of the Army Corps' beach
engineering programs before and after the storm. What it found
was unambiguous. Where the Army Corps was able to complete
beach engineered projects, the dunes held. And the damage to
communities behind the project was either negligible or
manageable.
So here is a before and after photo at Surf City, which
received beach engineering in 2007 as part of the U.S. Army
Corps Long Beach Island Shore Restoration Project. You can see
that despite the damage to the dune, the dune held. It saved
lives, it saved property, it saved money. It made sense.
Alternatively, here is a photo of another part of Long
Beach Island, in the Loveladies neighborhood that unfortunately
did not have similar protections. It may not appear to be
obvious damage, but when the surge came, washed away the
undeveloped dune and flooded the homes you see along the beach,
it pushed extraordinary amounts of sand into the neighborhood,
covering the street and the entire area.
I would like to submit a copy of Stockton College's study
for the record.
Senator Boxer. Without objection.
[The referenced material was not received at time of
print.]
Senator Menendez. We desperately need, Madam Chair, to
provide the Army Corps the funding it needs to do not beach
replenishment; this is about engineered beaches that save
lives, save money, and stop us from repetitive loss. Our
existing defense is, it is almost as if you are personally ill
and your immune system is low. Right now, the urgency of now is
critical. Because if we get a northeaster, based upon what we
have suffered after Superstorm Sandy, then the effects would be
devastating to us. Our existing defenses from the storms have
been greatly weakened. If a powerful northeaster hits New
Jersey again, we could again see damage on an unbelievable
scale.
And I just want to talk briefly, as part of one of the
great industries of our State, that fishing industry that is
along the New Jersey Shore, the reports we have gotten about
the damage to commercial fishing industries have been
devastating. There are long stretches of the shore where every
marina, dock, and slip has been destroyed. And the boats moored
to the infrastructure were launched onshore.
Here at Wagner's Marina in Keyport, just one example of how
the boats were tossed into surrounding buildings, they lost
over 5,000 feet of dock space, including electrical systems,
catwalks, and gas lines.
So the need we have is enormous. We need the Federal
Government as a partner to help us rebuild. And we need help
not just rebuilding to the status quo, but to make sure that we
are stronger, so the next storm--so that we don't have this
type of devastation again.
I want to close with just, in the midst of all this
incredible darkness, the resiliency and the light that
sometimes comes in the midst of such adversity. There are so
many stories. There is a story of the young woman in Hoboken
who lived in a basement apartment who totally was flooded, lost
everything. And instead of going ahead and thinking about what
is my tomorrow all about, she spent the better part of a week
at a shelter helping everybody else, even though she had
nothing to go back to.
Or there is Pam Bond and Jeff Spinardi who own a candle
shop called Greetings from Hoboken. They lost power along with
everybody else on Washington Street; for over a week they were
closed. The day they got power back, they opened the store,
they made $27 despite the fact that this is the busiest time of
the year for them. And despite their own struggles with the
store, they wanted to help others.
When they heard that the Hoboken homeless shelter was out
of power and needed candles and found out the shelter had only
one candle with which to light their whole process, Pam and
Jeff donated hundreds of dollars' worth of candles to help them
out. And now they are raising more funds for the shelter. This
is the type of State that our people are ultimately about.
So I am asking each of our colleagues in the Congress to
stand with us and help New Jerseyans recover and rebuild in our
time of need, just as I personally, since I have been here,
have stood with the people of the Gulf Coast after Hurricane
Katrina, or the people of Joplin, Missouri, or crop destruction
after a tornado ravaged a community. Because it is who we are,
it is what we do as a country. And it is what truly gives the
meaning to the United States of America.
Thank you, Madam Chairman.
Senator Boxer. Senator, thank you so much. And all of our
speakers have been extraordinary. And I am going to, with your
permission, include a lot of these photographs in our record.
Is that all right with you?
Senator Menendez. Yes, thank you very much.
[The referenced photographs were not received at time of
print.]
Senator Boxer. And our last Senator to speak before we turn
to our House colleagues will be Senator Blumenthal from
Connecticut.
We are so delighted you could be here, Senator. Go right
ahead.
STATEMENT OF HON. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL,
U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT
Senator Blumenthal. Thank you very much, Madam Chairman. I
want to thank you and Ranking Member Inhofe for today's
hearing.
And my colleagues, who have stated so eloquently what
happened in New York and New Jersey, Connecticut, really shared
their fate. Although the national media coverage may give the
impression that Connecticut's damage was more a footnote to the
main story, in fact the destruction and damage in Connecticut
was every bit as real and the pockets of destruction as
pervasive as elsewhere. I think many of the lessons learned
that you have heard here form a pattern that we need to invest
now or pay later, that there are measures we can take now to
minimize the damage in the future, and we cannot be penny wise
and pound foolish to avoid those measures going forward.
And the other lesson that I think is striking here is that
our efforts have to be complementary, not competitive, that we
are mutually supportive in this effort. I have been asked
repeatedly, aren't you in competition with New Jersey and New
York? The answer is very emphatically no. We are mutually
supportive and reinforcing, as we are to responses that have
been done to other disasters, whether they have been hurricanes
or tornadoes or earthquakes around the country. We are united,
as a United States of America, as Senator Menendez has said.
Hurricane Sandy's scale and scope of destruction made it
one of the largest natural disasters to affect our nation,
leaving millions of people in the tri-State region without
homes or electricity and costing tens of billions of dollars in
damages to governments, businesses, and residents. The sweep
and depth of destruction and human impact and financial effect
was simply staggering.
And our response now has to match its historic magnitude.
We need to think big and act big with urgency and vision. Right
away, short-term. We must redouble our efforts to reduce the
personal cost and property damage of this storm and other
storms. And longer view, the path toward enlightened protection
and preparation must include infrastructure improvements. They
may seem massive, but they are well needed and deserved, such
as has been done with Stamford, Connecticut's floodgate
repairs, steps to stop flooding on the Housatonic River, and
electricity security measures, such as the establishment of
micro-grids and increased availability of generators for
various public and private facilities, especially for senior
citizen housing.
In Connecticut, disasters like Hurricane Sandy are quickly
becoming the new normal. The storm is the fourth major disaster
for the State of Connecticut in the past 19 months. Record
snowfall in January of last year, 2011, caused buildings to
collapse. That spring, Connecticut incurred destructive floods,
especially on the Housatonic River, resulting from melting snow
and tropical storm sized rainfall.
Later in 2011, Tropical Storm Irene and then a highly
unusual October snow storm caused power outages that took more
than a week to repair. And most recently, Sandy hit coastal
towns with tropical storm force, combined with high tides and a
full moon, winds and surges producing record high storm levels
in the seas immediately surrounding the shores. And inland
towns experienced significant widespread outages.
I want to thank the Committee for this personal insight,
enabling us to provide some personal history. I was out in the
storm, actually experiencing its ferocity and force, as I
visited many of the emergency operation centers, and then
afterward touring the State by land, by air, by sea as my
colleagues have done. And most recently earlier this week with
the Administrator of FEMA, Mr. Fugate. I saw in the immediate
aftermath, as well as during these storms, the personal courage
of our emergency responders. The city of Milford's fire
department that performed 13 water rescues, the National Guard
supported 73 assistance missions, our Governor responding with
his excellent leadership. Eighteen State agencies, the Red
Cross, the United Way, all coming together including our
utility linesmen and repair crews that worked tirelessly to
restore critical electric power to homes and businesses.
And yet, I want to make clear that utility workers on the
ground and in the field were once again heroes. But the utility
management of the overall storm response was regrettably
lacking in some regions. Although better than last year, it was
still inadequate in key respects and areas. My many
conversations with elected officials around the State indicated
clearly that utilities need to better communicate with local
authorities on the location and allocation of repair and tree
removal crews in their communities.
Too often municipal leaders and emergency response crews
were left in the dark, both figuratively and literally. The
utilities, in addition, have to follow more closely the
municipal electric utility model and provide at least one
electricity restoration crew to each town, working with that
town's public works department to remove live wires and allow
the reopening of roads. They have to provide additional
resources to restore electricity to the most critical areas of
every town, which local officials know best.
I want to compliment President Obama. The response of the
Federal Government was quick and decisive. And personal visits
by the Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, as
well as Administrator Fugate, were extremely important in
calling attention and gathering information so that the Federal
Government could assist very directly and immediately in this
disaster recovery.
The total amount of damages is very preliminary but
dramatic. Public infrastructure needs are in the tens of
millions. And these estimates do not even take into account the
possible public infrastructure damage that FEMA may be unable
to reimburse due to the lack of flexibility within the hazard
mitigation program.
We have built our infrastructure to 100 year storm levels.
Unfortunately, the 100 year storm seems to be happening about
every year. We have to be prepared for this new normal by
hardening critical infrastructure and taking the time and
spending the money to conduct the infrastructure assessment
that Senator Schumer spoke about doing. This kind of studied
and streamlined approach is absolutely what needs to be done.
And as we continue to fund infrastructure improvements, the
Federal Government should consider how such improvements may
mitigate future water related damage and future taxpayer costs
for restoration. One point here is that FERC continues to
encourage transmission line redundancy and strengthening. But
it should also consider similar initiatives for local backup
power sources. I note that ISO New England has just applied to
FERC for a 9.2 percent increase in its budget. The regional
transmission authority, ISO New England, should devote some
attention to the needs in this area. I question whether this 9
percent budget request is justified and deserves certainly
serious attention, which I believe Federal agencies should give
it.
In response to mounting advocacy, including my own,
Connecticut is investing in micro-grids. A micro-grid, or
distributed generation, allows communities to generate
electricity from many small sources instead of just a few big
ones. And these micro-grids offer an antidote to mass blackouts
after storms. I am hoping that both FERC and ISO New England
can be positive and active partners in the promotion of micro-
grids.
Generators for senior citizen facilities have to be
considered. I visited a number, one in Preston, encountered a
similar problem in Franklin, Connecticut. These kinds of micro-
grid and electricity restoration efforts are necessary to meet
the needs of our vulnerable populations. Again, FERC should
work with utilities to provide incentives and even mandates for
bulk purchase of mobile generators that could be transported to
these facilities on an as-needed basis as well as permanent
generators in other residential facilities.
I have more that I could say. I ask that my full testimony
be entered into the record.
Senator Boxer. Without objection.
Senator Blumenthal. But finally, let me just say, Stamford
offers an example of what I think you have heard from a number
of my colleagues about the use of hurricane barriers. In
Stamford, a 17 foot barrier, which blocked an 11 foot storm
surge from Sandy, was built in 1969, and helped prevent about
$25 million in damage to businesses and homes during Sandy.
Stamford is waiting for Federal funding of less than a million
dollars to replace the barrier's pumps that had to be operated
manually during the storm. An investment of less than a million
dollars would ensure a saving of $25 million in avoided
recovery costs.
Similarly, the Army Corps of Engineers should and must take
an increased role in flood mitigation efforts, especially along
the Housatonic River, where there has been repeated flooding as
a result of these past storms. Review and responsibility begins
with the Army Corps of Engineers, but Congress can help support
and move forward this vital work.
Flood studies will help identify how the State can be
better prepared and equipped for these storm surges along the
Five Mile River in Fairfield and New Haven Counties, the
Housatonic River, a variety of places around the State of
Connecticut where we know prevention works. We have seen it
first-hand, and the investment now will avoid payment later.
Senator Boxer. Senator, I hate to rush you through, but I
have all these House members waiting.
Senator Blumenthal. I just want to finish by thanking you,
Madam Chairman.
Senator Boxer. Absolutely.
Senator Blumenthal. I hope that we can work together.
Senator Boxer. We will. We will.
Senator Blumenthal. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Senator Blumenthal was not
received at time of print.]
Senator Boxer. And as you leave, Senator, I just want to
tell the House members, the purpose of this hearing today is to
make a historic record of this storm. We can't have all your
constituents here, you are their representatives. So we are
going to put together a record of this hearing that we will
actually give to each of you who made this record.
My own belief is that, I hope and I pray it will be a
turning point in how we look at climate change, and that we
begin to make the necessary improvements that all the Senators,
and Senator Blumenthal was very specific, showing one example
of where a million dollars can save $20 million-plus. What is
the point of us not listening to that?
And as we work on a WRDA bill, and some of you are on the
House counterpart committees, we are going to address all of
these issues as best we can, as early as we can, next year.
So here is where we are. I would like to thank Senator
Blumenthal, I know you have other meetings. The order in which
we are going to hear from people, considering who is in the
room, so this is what we are going to do. Pallone, Langevin,
Bishop, Cicilline, Representative Holt, Representative Harris.
So if you could just all come on up here, we will go in
that order. I have given you each 2 minutes, but I will have a
very soft gavel until you reach 3. As someone who spent 10
years in the House, I learned to speak in 1 minute. Remember? I
remember those days. When I got to the Senate, the press came
up to me one day and said, you have changed, you are so calm. I
said, well, in the House I had to get to the end of my speech
and just have 1 minute to express myself. Here I can work my
way up to the ending.
So I know it is a great skill, but you are all really good
at it. So we will start off with Representative Pallone.
STATEMENT OF HON. FRANK PALLONE, JR.,
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY
Representative Pallone. Thank you, Chairman, and thanks for
having this hearing and inviting us from the House.
My district was very hard hit by the storm, and I really
wanted to just focus on a number of critical issues that have
come to light that I think we must address as we move forward.
I am not going to talk so much about what happened, but what we
need to do over the next few months and year.
First I wanted to say, there is a great need for more
temporary housing alternatives. I have thousands of people that
have lost their homes. They have to actually reconstruct or
rebuild their home. It is not just damage. And we have now some
temporary housing that is being set up at Fort Monmouth, which
is a closed Army base. But we really need trailers and mobile
homes. Many of the mayors have requested those and are willing
to accommodate them. They haven't arrived yet. But I want to
mention that that is a priority.
Additionally, we need FEMA to provide emergency funds to
the Army Corps of Engineers so they can repair breached dunes
and replenish beaches to protect the damaged areas from future
storms. You heard from Senators Menendez and Blumenthal, where
there was a dune, where there was a seawall, where there were
replenished beaches, the damage was less. Those need to be put
back again.
I have also requested that FEMA waive the 25 percent State-
local match for public assistance repair work. Many
municipalities in my district, some of which are very small, do
not have the resources to contribute. I have some towns that
have less than 1,000 families. They can't meet that 25 percent
match.
It is also critical for funding to be made available for
homeowners to pursue buyouts or grants to raise their homes in
areas that flood frequently. We have some areas which have
flooded three times now. Basically a buyout would make sense
rather than trying to put the homes back again.
The Secretary of Commerce has declared a fishery disaster,
due to the impact of Sandy, but that should include both
commercial and recreational fishing communities. Fish
processors, charter boat operators, marinas, tackle and bait
stores, and other fishery related businesses have lost their
equipment, infrastructure, and expected revenues. So Congress
must make sure funds are allocated for fishery disaster
assistance, so these individuals and businesses can receive
relief.
I met with FEMA Administrator Fugate, and I noted when I
met him that small business failures, he says small business
failure rates after a major disaster can exceed 70 percent. So
I believe we must also work to avoid this by expanding CDBG
grants to assist small businesses facing damage from the storm,
and would also like to see CDBG grants available for homeowners
whose insurance or FEMA grants did not provide enough funding
to rebuild, something I am asking you to look into.
Finally, obviously we have to continue to work in a
bipartisan manner. I would like to see a robust supplemental
appropriations passage in the lame duck, rather than wait to
the new session. And I know that you are going to work with us
to try to accomplish that.
Senator Boxer. Yes, and many of the things you said
obviously deal with the supplemental. And I will of course work
with my colleagues on Appropriations.
Thank you very much, Representative Pallone. As colleagues
leave the table, my new arrivals, please take their spot. We
will move ahead. We are making a record here, a record of
Sandy.
Representative Langevin, thank you for being here.
STATEMENT OF HON. JIM LANGEVIN,
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND
Representative Langevin. Thank you, Chairman Boxer.
Thank you for the opportunity, Chairman Boxer, to testify
here today. I want to thank you for having me here today to
provide a local perspective on Hurricane Sandy. I am pleased to
be here with my colleague, Congressman Cicilline, as well, as
we talk about the impacts to Rhode Island.
Hurricane Sandy was obviously a devastating storm for much
of the Northeast, as we all know, with some portions of the
region still recovering and others that are forever changed. As
Rhode Islanders know all too well, the so-called 100 year
storms are becoming more frequent, providing a stark reminder
that climate change is occurring, whether we like it or not.
While I sincerely hope that superstorms like Sandy are not
becoming the norm, it is incumbent upon all of us to take
action to mitigate future vulnerabilities. I must say that both
before, during, and after Hurricane Sandy, our first responders
performed above and beyond our expectations, and utilities and
other stakeholders across Rhode Island were laudable in their
preparation and responses to Sandy.
However, being prepared means more than just having
emergency response procedures in place. As we restore our
infrastructure, we must also build strong coastal ecosystems
that help protect our communities from storm surges and
flooding. I certainly echo those requests outlined by Senators
Reed and Whitehouse in their testimony when they spoke earlier
today.
Our communities have shown tremendous strength and
generosity in the wake of Sandy. Our Federal and State agencies
were well prepared, organized, and responsive. But a full
recovery in Rhode Island and elsewhere will require continued
application of Federal resources in the current fiscal year and
beyond, as well as prudent and careful planning in order to
meet the needs of our communities.
In that regard, Chairman Boxer, I look forward to working
with this Committee to help families and businesses in Rhode
Island and the rest of the region affected by Sandy to recover
and rebuild in the wake of this disaster. I thank you again for
the opportunity and I look forward to working with the
Committee.
Senator Boxer. Yes, and we look forward to working with
you.
We are going to hear from Representatives Bishop,
Cicilline, Holt, Harris, and Pascrell, in that order.
Representative Bishop.
STATEMENT OF HON. TIMOTHY BISHOP,
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK
Representative Bishop. Madam Chair, thank you very much for
inviting myself and my colleagues from the House to testify
before your Committee today.
I want to start with a comment that you just made with
respect to the imperative that we move a WRDA reauthorization
bill as quickly as possible. Because I believe that many of the
challenges facing the First District of New York, which I
represent, can and would appropriately be addressed in a new
WRDA authorization bill. I hope the House can meet you halfway
in approving a bill as early as possible in the new Congress.
As your Committee moves to consider measures to help
affected States deal with the aftermath of such as massive
storm as Sandy, I would like to offer the following suggestions
to ease the burden on our State and local governments. First,
we should waive the local cost share for Corps projects that
were adversely impacted by Hurricane Sandy. In the recent past,
Congress has authorized Corps projects at Federal expense in
response to significant national or regional challenges.
In my view, the challenges facing our communities warrant
such a change today. Similar to the suggestion I offered when
the House considered the Recovery Act in 2009, I will continue
to advocate for a limited and appropriate cost share waiver as
the Ranking Member of the Water Resources and Environment
Subcommittee in the House.
We should authorize a renewed commitment and investment in
hurricane and storm damage reduction projects that provide
invaluable storm protection for families of all socioeconomic
levels in my district. In this light, I applaud the first steps
taken by this Committee and you, Madam Chair. I understand you
are working very closely with incoming Ranking Member Vitter in
a draft Water Resources Development Act. In addition, we must
ensure funding is wisely allocated to storm damage reduction
solutions that have demonstrated successes, such as the dunes
in the West Hampton Beach area of my district, and protect the
inner bay ecology along the south shore.
Finally, we should provide robust funding for the hazard
mitigation grant program to ensure that cost effective projects
that will reduce or eliminate the losses from future disasters
are able to move forward with State and local support. While
providing Federal support for recovery costs in affected areas
is absolutely critical, a strong hazard mitigation grant
program will save money in the long term and make our
communities more resilient.
I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides
of the aisle and in both chambers to expedite these and other
measures to rebuild and restore our communities in a fair and
equitable manner. I yield back and thank you very much.
Senator Boxer. Thank you, Congressman. It was a pleasure to
work with you on the highway bill, and I look forward to
keeping that progress going with WRDA.
To our colleagues who are just walking in now, I want to
welcome you all here. So you can see, we don't have a large
enough table, but the next--I think it was Representative Grimm
who came in next, I am not sure. Please take a seat.
We are going to go in the order of arrival. What I want to
say here is, we are making a permanent record of what happened.
You are the eyewitnesses, really, telling us the stories and
also giving us ideas, as you have done, for what we should put
in our WRDA bill. I am very pleased that you all took time. I
know you are all very busy and have lots of places to be.
So although I gave you 2 minutes, I am going to add another
minute on, because I know even though you are used to speaking
in one moment, I think 3 minutes would be what you need.
So we are going to proceed, Representative Cicilline
followed by Representative Holt.
STATEMENT OF HON. DAVID CICILLINE,
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND
Representative Cicilline. Thank you, Chairman Boxer, for
this opportunity to appear before you today with my colleagues.
I want to begin by recognizing the incredible strength and
resilience of those whose lives were affected by this storm,
especially along the Rhode Island coastline, where there was
moderate to major flooding. I want to particularly applaud the
efforts of our State and local first responders, Rhode Island
National Guard, and the Emergency Management Agency, our public
works and highway employees, National Grid and our other
utility providers, and the many others who have been working
relentlessly in the recovery effort.
I also want to recognize the collaboration that was
demonstrated in our State across every level of government. In
particular, the leadership of our Governor, Lincoln Chafee, and
our mayors and town administrators. At every step of the way,
we had the assistance of the Federal Government, helping
inform, prepare, and assist Rhode Islanders.
Now, Congress has the responsibility to ensure that our
communities can rebuild as quickly and effectively as possible.
We need to act expeditiously in providing additional disaster
relief.
At the same time, I think this is an appropriate moment to
assess potential reforms. I thank you for convening this
hearing to address some of these issues.
There are two issues that I heard most frequently during
both Hurricane Sandy as well as Hurricane Irene, which I would
like to bring to your attention. First is from small business
owners, particularly those from economically challenged
neighborhoods and small individually operated shops and
businesses with just one or two or three employees. These small
businesses face a particular set of challenges that often
preclude them from taking advantage of SBA disaster loans, even
with reduced interest rates.
I invite this Committee--and I will do the same on our side
as a member of the House Small Business Committee--to assess
the possibility of providing direct financial assistance to
these truly disadvantaged small business owners, either through
grants or hybrid of up front grants followed by super low
interest loans. We can establish stringent eligibility criteria
and accountability mechanisms, but we need to attempt to get
targeted relief funds to those small businesses that sometimes
face insurmountable hurdles following a disaster.
The second issue which was raised to me during tours of
recovery sites after the storm is that as we invest in the
restoration of highways, bridges, and infrastructure to pre-
disaster conditions, we should not be penny wise and pound
foolish. We need to maximize the efficiency of this funding,
and obviously look at the waiver of the local cost share. But
we also need to ensure that there are clear cost-benefit
analyses performed that evaluates whether it would be
advantageous financially, economically and in terms of future
damage prevention, to provide for additional enhancements to
this infrastructure beyond that of pre-disaster conditions
alone, as current law provides.
Some additional improvements, as you know, are eligible,
but in light of the estimates showing a rise in the number of
future large scale disasters, now is the time to assess all
options and determine whether or not the current limitations
are too restrictive.
I thank you for the opportunity appear before you today and
look forward to working with you and other members of this
Committee as we continue to address these issues for our
constituents.
Senator Boxer. Thank you. And I think you underscored a lot
of the points that were made, that we can't rebuild the way it
was built before. That is just a waste of money. We have to
prevent the damage in the future.
I had a similar thing in an earthquake when our bridge
failed, the bay bridge. It was horrible, just broke right off.
And there was a big debate on the floor of the Senate whether
we should rebuild it the way it was or make improvements.
Clearly, it was the approach that failed to the bridge, and we
prevailed. But it was a big argument. It shouldn't have been an
argument. It doesn't make sense to rebuild it the way it was
built, since we now know it can fail.
Anyway, all these things that you are saying to me today
are very important. It is a pleasure to have all of you here,
and I call on Representative Holt.
STATEMENT OF HON. RUSH HOLT,
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY
Representative Holt. I thank the Chair for holding these
hearings and inviting us.
I thank and appreciate the work of FEMA under Director
Fugate and all the workers who came from all over New Jersey
and all over the United States to help protect and assist the
many people in New Jersey affected by the storm.
I join Representatives Pascrell and Pallone and Bishop and
Langevin and others in what they are requesting. But the point
I want to make is today we must consider more than just
repairing the damage from Sandy. In recent years, we have
experienced in various parts of New Jersey unprecedented
floods, winds, rains, tidal surges. Not just Katrina, Irene,
Floyd, Sandy, but again and again. The next storm will be
different from Sandy only in detail. These unprecedented storms
are the new normal.
And deniers of climate change notwithstanding, we are
deluding ourselves if we think we are not experiencing climate
change. We must not simply replace the structures damaged by
Sandy. We have to build resilient infrastructure to withstand
tomorrow's superstorms. We must build for the new normal.
That means significant investment in power engineering and
transportation engineering and rail engineering and wireless
engineering and shoreline engineering and river flood control,
in planning and residential building and other efforts to
strengthen our infrastructure. All in addition to taking as
aggressive steps as we can to bring climate change under
control as best we can.
So just as strengthening levees was part of the emergency
supplemental spending for Katrina, so infrastructure
strengthening should be part of the response to Sandy. I can't
emphasize this too strongly, I am sure that the Chair
understands this, and again, I thank you for giving us this
time.
Senator Boxer. Thank you so much, Congressman.
We will turn to Representative Harris, followed by
Pascrell, Engel, Grimm, and Courtney. And I think that will be
our group.
Please proceed, Representative Harris.
STATEMENT OF HON. ANDY HARRIS,
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE STATE OF MARYLAND
Representative Harris. Thank you very much, Chairman Boxer,
for the opportunity to provide brief testimony on the impact of
Hurricane Sandy on the area I represent.
The First Congressional District of Maryland includes all
of Maryland's eastern shore, much of it only a few feet above
sea level. Somerset and Worcester Counties and particularly the
communities of Crisfield, Smith Island, Marion, Fairmont, Diehl
Island, Ocean Pines, and Princess Anne were particularly hard
hit with flood, wind, and rain damage from Hurricane Sandy.
While these communities continue to recover, our thoughts
and prayers certainly go out as well to our neighbors from New
York, New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and
other areas where today's heartfelt testimony showed just how
lives and businesses of families were disrupted as they dealt
with this massive property loss.
On October 31st I toured the affected sites in Crisfield
and Ocean City with Governor O'Malley and FEMA and local
officials to see first-hand the serious impact of the
superstorm. The Army Corps beach engineering projects really
protected Ocean City from major damage. It was good to see,
because that is an investment we have made over the years.
I was nonetheless stunned to see the devastation to some of
our communities like Crisfield and to see what they suffered.
Madam Chairman, 3 weeks after the events last week, all
Americans watched thousands of families eating Thanksgiving
dinner in a shelter, never to return to their homes. And that
is something that we will live with, and we will deal with. And
Senators Gillibrand and Menendez suggested, though, the worst
of nature turns out the best in people. It is so encouraging to
see citizens, a lawyer in Crisfield like John Phebus, who now
spends his days organizing hundreds of volunteers and
coordinating them helping their neighbors recover.
Last week I hosted a tele-town hall meeting with over 1,000
residents from the impacted communities. I was very encouraged
by the Federal and State coordinated response efforts to date.
But Madam Chair, one message I heard loud and clear is that a
few citizens still have an understanding of the different
responsibilities of the Federal, State, and local governments
as they respond to disaster and recovery, which does underscore
the need for all levels of government to be prepared for these
catastrophes in the future, ensuring that scarce resources can
always be made available to those parts of our community most
in need of assistance.
Madam Chair, I want to thank you for holding this important
hearing of record.
Senator Boxer. I want to thank you very much.
And again, you are the eyes and ears for so many people who
can't fit in the room. So thank you very much.
And now we will turn to Representative Pascrell.
STATEMENT OF HON. BILL PASCRELL, JR.,
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY
Representative Pascrell. Chairman Boxer, thanks for putting
us together today and listening.
This was an epic storm, and it needs an epic response. I
hope it does not get caught up in the debates that we are
having in both the House and the Senate on how best to face
this fiscal cliff that we all read about and talk about.
Because that would be very dangerous to the people, not only of
the State of New Jersey, but the other States and metropolitan
areas of the tri-State area.
We are working with members of the Ways and Means
Committee, as a member myself, to draft legislation modeled
after other epic storms, which would bring some tax relief.
Allowing businesses to expense the cost of disaster recovery is
critical when we see how many businesses have been wiped out.
Helping rebuild damaged low income housing and providing help
and financing the momentous task of rebuilding infrastructure.
What we have now in FEMA is not good enough for the loss in
small businesses. It just is not. We don't need low interest
loans. What we need is a new addressing of the major problem.
Small businesses are not satisfied with low interest loans at
this point. It is beyond that. It needs to be responded to, and
I hope this legislation will do that.
You take a look at Bergen County in the Ninth Congressional
District. Two towns were wiped out when the Hackensack River
rose above its berm. Monacy police department, there isn't any.
And we are trying to get Federal funding, matching funding to
bring in trailers for that town, and I think we are going to
accomplish it.
The mayor of Littlebury had his house wiped out, almost
lost his wife. This is a tragedy beyond words, certainly my
words. It will be in the hands of the Federal Government and
bipartisan groups like the one before this Committee today to
step in and help rebuild. This is critical. We need to review
our grid. And Senator, this is very important, it is not only
important for New Jersey and the metropolitan area, but the
grid is not doing what it is supposed to do. It is a homeland
security issue, no question about it. We have substations wiped
out because they are not placed in the right place, which puts
everybody out of power in the immediate area.
These substations have been compromised, not only in New
Jersey, but in other States across the Union. So this is a
homeland security issue, whether it is man-made or God-made, it
doesn't matter, we need to respond to it.
I will conclude by saying to you, Senator, and you know
exactly what I am talking about, we cannot catch this up in the
discussion that we are having in terms of responding to the
economic plight of this country. We cannot, or else we will
miss out, and we will have a million excuses.
Thank you very much for having us.
Senator Boxer. Representative, I couldn't agree with you
more. We have had Republicans before us, Democrats before us.
If we can't come together and help the people who were so
harmed, and we get this caught up in our other disputes and
problems, shame on us. People will watch it, and people see it.
We can't do that.
There are certain things that are way above politics. This
superstorm is one of those things, it is way above politics.
Representative Pascrell. It wasn't easy after Katrina,
either, you know that, Senator. There were a lot of debates
about that. And when we look back on it, I hope some of the
folks who were obstacles are ashamed of their behavior. These
people had nothing as well. If we can't rise up above our
political ideologies, then we don't belong here.
Senator Boxer. Well, I think we are going to. I feel
confident of that. And I ask unanimous consent to enter into
the record statements by Senator Mikulski and Representatives
Nita Lowey, Peter King, Rosa DeLauro, Joe Runyon, and Frank
LoBiondo.
[The referenced statements were not received at time of
print.]
Senator Boxer. I am happy we have been joined by
Representative Smith. We will in this order continue. I want to
say for those who just came, we are making a record, sort of an
eyewitness account of what happened with Sandy. We are also
using your testimony as a way to guide us as we write the water
resources bill, which will deal with flood control and
prevention.
So the order now is Engel, Grimm, Courtney, and Smith.
Congressman Engel, the floor is yours.
STATEMENT OF HON. ELIOT ENGEL,
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK
Representative Engel. Thank you, Madam Chairman, and let me
say it is nice to see graduates from the House doing so well in
the Senate. Thank you for having us.
[Laughter.]
Senator Boxer. I don't know if I graduated, I left.
Representative Engel. As you know, I represent New York's
17th Congressional District, which includes parts of the Bronx,
as well as Westchester and Rockland Counties, just north of New
York City. Sandy is the largest tropical system ever recorded
in the Atlantic. Her winds stretched 1,100 miles from end to
end, and she was brutal from the very beginning. Sandy killed
at least 69 people in the Caribbean, including 54 in Haiti and
11 in Cuba, and then on October 29th, she crashed ashore in the
United States.
By the time it was done, Sandy had taken 131 American
lives, which included 53 New Yorkers. In just the New York City
region, Madam Chair, which you know well, 305,000 homes were
destroyed or damaged, 2.4 million residents lost power. A
transit system carrying more than 8 million daily riders was
forced to shut down. Thirty-seven health care facilities
housing more than 6,000 patients were forced to evacuate. Two
thousand miles of roads were damaged, and 11 tunnels were
flooded.
The total economic losses from Sandy have climbed up over
$70 billion and are still accumulating. It is now the second
most expensive storm in U.S. history after Hurricane Katrina.
In the face of unimaginable destruction, what has been
inspiring and heartening is to see so many citizens from nearby
neighborhoods and across the country pitching in with relief
efforts.
FEMA's work has been admirable, more than 231,000 New
Yorkers have contacted FEMA, and nearly $680 million in
assistance has been approved. The Department of Agriculture's
Food and Nutrition Service has distributed 1.1 million pounds
of household sized USDA food.
But obviously, as my colleagues have said and as you have
said, Senator, much more needs to be done. We must provide much
more recovery funding to the region. In 2005 we approved $58.1
billion to help Gulf States recover from the effects of
Hurricane Katrina. A similar effort must be made for those
impacted by Sandy.
In addition to recovering from past destruction, we must
also look to prepare for the future. We are likely to
experience more storms of Sandy's magnitude, and we are not
ready--sadly, we are not ready.
To adequately prepare, first of all, we must build a better
grid. A storm the size of Sandy would stress even the most
resilient electrical grid, but that is not the grid we have. We
still depend on 20th century technology to power a 21st century
economy. We must also bury power lines. Just 18 percent of U.S.
distribution lines are underground. Burying them could make a
tremendous difference. Some of my constituents in Scarsdale and
Rye and Larchmont had to wait 2 and 3 weeks before they could
get power. This is unacceptable.
We must continue to fully fund FEMA and review its
practices to make sure it is performing as efficiently and
effectively as possible. We must build better infrastructure.
America spends just 2.4 percent of its economy on
infrastructure, compared with 5 percent in Europe and 9 percent
in China. If we are to have a 21st century economy and live in
the real world, this 2.4 percent is not sustainable and not
acceptable.
We must also accelerate replacement of natural gas
pipelines. During Sandy, leaking gas fueled hundreds of fires,
including blazes that destroyed hundreds of homes.
And finally, as you have mentioned so eloquently, Senator,
we must stop ignore climate change. I serve on the House Energy
and Commerce Committee. The science is clear, cutting carbon
emissions over the long term is key to reducing the risks from
extreme weather.
So I thank you for the opportunity to testify. I look
forward to working together to help our fellow Americans heal
from Hurricane Sandy and to ensure that we all better prepared
for similar storms in the future.
Thank you so much.
Senator Boxer. Thank you, Representative.
And now we go to Representative Grimm. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF HON. MICHAEL GRIMM,
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK
Representative Grimm. Thank you, Madam Chairman, I very
much appreciate the invitation to speak before this Committee
today.
I very proudly represent Staten Island and Brooklyn. Staten
Island was one of the hardest hit areas of all of New York
City. I was on the ground from the moment the storm started.
The amount of devastation that I saw was unimaginable. Twenty-
four Staten Islanders lost their lives. Families lost
everything. Homes were literally torn off their foundations.
Some collapsed. Large boats, yachts, were scattered deep into
neighborhoods and piled up onto people's homes.
More than 100,000 were without power, and for weeks people
slept in a cold, damp home, apprehensive to move to a shelter
because they were afraid of looting. The streets were dark,
they were littered with what was once their home and their
personal belongings.
As a community and a city, we came together, and we cleaned
up the surface rather quickly. But there are still much deeper
and continuing challenges that remain.
Families are still in shelters. The need for housing is one
of our top priorities. Others are struggling with FEMA and SBA
to receive adequate assistance. There are health concerns. Fuel
spilled into people's yards and homes. Raw sewage backed up and
filled people's homes to the ceiling.
Homeowners are uncertain about EPA guidelines and not
rebuilding their homes properly, leaving the houses at risk to
be condemned later for mold, because they will be too sick to
live in.
Now, I know we are going to meet these challenges. But in
addition, we need to rebuild to prevent future disasters. We
need to rethink our zoning laws. And we need to provide the
Army Corps of Engineers with adequate funding so that we can
fortify our coastline.
Sandy recovery is far from over. In fact, it is just
beginning. The people of Staten Island have turned to us here
in the Congress to help them rebuild and recover.
I think that if we here in this chamber do one-tenth of
what the community did, came together as countrymen, as
neighbors, as friends, if we can do even one-tenth of that,
then I know we will be rebuilt stronger than ever.
With that, I yield back, and I thank you.
Senator Boxer. Thank you, Representative. Very eloquent
testimony.
We are going to turn now to Representative Courtney.
Welcome, sir.
STATEMENT OF HON. JOE COURTNEY,
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT
Representative Courtney. Thank you, Senator.
Again, the urgency of the situation was shown again this
morning by the Federal Reserve, which had its reports in from
the 12 regions around the country. The good news is 9 out of 12
regions were showing good signs of economic growth. The three
that weren't were Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. And it
was Hurricane Sandy which was identified by each one of the
Governors as the reason why.
Again, we have to really hit the sweet spot here in terms
of a good package to help this critical part of America to be
part of a strong time of economic growth. Again, it is so
important to all the priorities that we face as a nation.
Eastern Connecticut, eastern Long Island Sound, which runs
from Stonington, Mystic, I know an area that you visited with
one of my predecessors, all the way to New Haven, has actually
experienced four FEMA events in 2 years, going back to flooding
in the spring of 2010, Hurricane Irene, Storm Alfred last year,
and then Hurricane Sandy. In our area, because the breakwater
from Long Island Sound actually doesn't extend all the way to
the Stonington area, we experienced 90 mile per hour wind gusts
that coincided with high tide. We saw flooding and physical
destruction that actually exceeded the hurricane from 1938,
which the old timers always said was the high water mark in
terms of bad weather in Connecticut.
The only point I wanted to just share is that with these
four events, again, these communities along the shoreline and
in the interior, every single time the first responders in
local government has risen to the challenge in terms of making
sure that immediate first responder issues were met, the 75-25
reimbursement that comes from FEMA, again, given the fact that
we have had repetitive, a series of storms, is really starting
to affect the ability of these communities to maintain standard
operations.
So for example, the city of New London, which is a very
distressed municipality, again, did everything they had to do
in terms of protecting lives. But they are now looking at a
structural deficit that the expenditure triggered that is now
going to put at risk possibly laying off firemen and police.
Again, President Obama's prompt declaration was much
appreciated. Because that kind of took some of the doubt about
whether or not spending money was going to rebound and
boomerang against them. But the fact is, if we can look at that
per capita threshold that triggers a higher reimbursement as we
put this package together, the fact is these communities
deserve that. They have experienced just a historic repetition
of bad weather that is really now starting to hit bone and
muscle in terms of the ability to provide basic functions for
local government.
Thank you for holding this hearing, and I look forward to
working with the Senate and the House bipartisan group to get
the right response to this storm.
Senator Boxer. Well, Representative, thank you. As a former
member of local government, there is just so many times you can
go to the well. There is a small tax base there, especially
coming out of a recession, where the receipts are down, and
then this hits. I think you make an important point.
This Committee won't be dealing with a supplemental
directly. But indirectly, we will, because so many of us, not
myself, West Coast, although born on the East Coast,
experienced this. They will get very involved in the
supplemental. I think you make a very important point about
local match. Thank you.
And Representative Smith, last but not least, the floor is
yours.
STATEMENT OF HON. CHRIS SMITH,
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY
Representative Smith. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you
so much for convening this very timely and important hearing.
Madam Chairwoman, hours after Superstorm Sandy made
landfall in New Jersey last month, I met with victims, elected
officials, and emergency responders to survey the damage of our
coastal communities. I have about 20 that are right on the
water. I saw the devastation to lives, homes, and businesses
brought by this horrific storm. Matter of fact, in Manasquan, I
walked with the mayor the day after. The smell of gas, natural
gas, was so strong, so pungent that if any of us lit a match we
would have had an explosion. And many homes did burn down to
nothingness.
The courage, tenacity, and resiliency of the victims has
been amazing. The stories of neighbors helping neighbors with
breathtaking kindness, by providing shelter, food, and warm,
dry clothing, are almost without number. People are at once
heartbroken, devastated yet appreciative of the help that they
are getting and what they have left.
One resident of Belmar told me the day after Sandy
demolished his home, ``I have lost everything, but at least I
am alive.'' The first responders in the plethora of emergency
management personnel deserve the greatest praise of all,
risking their lives to ensure the safety of stranded families,
and then working around the clock to mitigate suffering and
damage. Sheriff Sean Golden of Monmouth County, the OEN
Director and Tom's River Police Chief Michael Mastraonati,
led-- and others, and continue to lead with extreme
effectiveness and vision.
The magnitude of the damage, Madam Chair, is startling. Yet
I remain confident that we can rebuild in a smart and
sophisticated way. Using the lessons learned from Hurricane
Irene and now Sandy, we can take actions that will prevent this
level of destruction and even contain the cost for the
taxpayers when the next powerful weather event hits.
New Jersey's almost 130 miles of coastline was battered by
severe wind, high waves, and rising ocean. We know that in most
areas where the Army Corps of Engineers implemented robust
renourishment projects, there was less damage than there would
have been. Where the Corps built higher berms, they held back
the water. Where there were low dunes, the water came flooding
in.
For example, in Ocean County, where the Corps constructed
high berms and widened beaches, damage to houses, businesses,
and other infrastructure were significantly less than in towns
where similar renourishment efforts had not yet begun.
The Corps projects proved themselves extremely worthwhile.
I think we need to continue its work and rebuild where
feasible.
Governor Christie, for his part, focused like a laser beam.
His estimate is $36.9 billion, a huge sum of money, but it is,
I think, very, very well documented.
Preventing flooded homes and businesses is cheaper and more
efficient than repairing them in a water breach. As such, we
believe it is necessary--and our delegation is united on this--
and cost effective for the Federal Government to provide the
Corps with emergency funding to finish beach replenishment jobs
that have already been authorized, and then to look very
carefully at those that are on the drawing board at the
feasibility study level.
I thank you again and would ask that my full statement be
made a part of the record. But we need to really unite and
really go all out to repair and to help those people who have
been so horrifically affected.
[The prepared statement of Representative Smith was not
received at time of print.]
Senator Boxer. Without objection, we will put your full
statement in the record.
Let it be noted that this was a bipartisan list of
witnesses, and that all of us are saying essentially the same
thing, which is that there was untold suffering, that we need
to move forward in a united way to resolve this problem and
meet the expectations of the people. And that we will step up
and ensure that we rebuild, and we rebuild in a way where these
things don't happen, that we keep in mind the fact that the
local governments and the States are looking to us.
I am very hopeful that we can meet the expectations of the
citizens of the region and also, frankly, the country. There is
no one in this country, unless they are really lucky, that
hasn't been touched by one of these natural disasters, whether
it is this one or earthquakes, flood, fire, drought, whether it
is inland, whether it is on the coast. This is the time and the
moment that we come together.
I think it was shown by the Governor of New Jersey and the
President of the United States, in the heat of a campaign, that
we must set that all aside, and get this done. I really thank
you for coming over. I know you had a busy, hectic day. We are
going to put your statement into the record.
We are very pleased that you came. This hearing stands
adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12:10 p.m., the Committee was adjourned.]
[An additional statement submitted for the record follows:]
Statement of Hon. James M. Inhofe,
U.S. Senator from the State of Oklahoma
Thank you, Madam Chairman, for holding this very important
hearing today. The EPW Committee has a long history of being
actively engaged in oversight of recovery efforts and
authorizing new projects and programs to aid those in need when
these tragic natural disasters have struck our nation.
I have long been a proponent of disaster preparedness, as
we have our share of natural disasters in my home State of
Oklahoma. In the 105th and the 106th Congresses, I introduced
the Disaster Mitigation Act, which amended the STAFFORD Act to
authorize programs for pre-disaster mitigation and which, among
other things, streamlined the administration of disaster
relief. I am pleased to say that elements of my bill were
captured in a House version that was ultimately signed into
law.
``Superstorm Sandy'' was a massively destructive storm that
wreaked havoc on the eastern seaboard in late October. Many of
my Committee colleagues' home States bore the brunt of this
storm's impact, and many of our fellow Americans are still
endeavoring to rebuild their lives following Sandy's
devastation. My thoughts and prayers continue to be with those
who have been affected, and I am sure the rest of the country's
are as well.
The purpose of today's hearing is to gain a first-hand
understanding of what transpired in the affected areas before,
during, and after the storm. I want to thank my colleagues for
joining us today: sharing your stories and the stories of your
constituents will be invaluable in helping to inform the
Committee's thinking on how to rebuild after this storm and how
to prepare for these types of storms in the future.
As you know, Madam Chairman, the Committee has already
begun to think about this very issue. Earlier this month, the
Committee held a hearing on your draft WRDA bill where you
announced the addition of an Extreme Weather and Disaster
Mitigation section. My friend, Senator Lautenberg, shared
shocking photos of the devastation in New Jersey and made an
impassioned and compelling case for congressional action. I
look forward to working with my colleagues on this Committee
and in the Senate to find effective and thoughtful ways to
address the long-term preparedness needs and resiliency of our
nation.
However, I believe that Congress' first and foremost
concern should be ensuring that those Americans impacted by
this event have the resources they need to rebuild in the near-
term. I was heartened to hear that President Obama has already
instructed Federal agencies to ensure that red tape and
bureaucracy will not stand in the way of recovery efforts. In a
speech at the American Red Cross on October 30 he said, ``So I
want to repeat--my message to the Federal Government: no
bureaucracy, no red tape. Get resources where they're needed as
fast as possible, as hard as possible, and for the duration,
because the recovery process obviously in a place like New
Jersey is going to take a significant amount of time.'' I look
forward to working with my colleagues to ensure that Congress
and the Administration ensure the path to recovery is as smooth
as possible.
Again, let me thank you all for coming today, and I look
forward to your testimony.
[all]