| |
Friday, September 16, 2005
Responding to All Americans Hit by Katrina
Democratic Rural Working Group
U.S. House of Representatives
Hurricane Katrina’s deadly assault on the people of New Orleans has been vividly recounted in horrific images and stories over the past few weeks. Sadly, this is only part of the tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of rural Americans along the Gulf Coast of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana were ravaged by this storm and today are mourning, suffering, and fighting to recover.
Whether it is a Louisiana dairy farmer struggling to manage his sick, dying herd, a Mississippi farmer whose crops were destroyed by floods, or an Alabama senior citizen struggling with a pressing medical situation and no electricity, the needs in these communities are acute.
As the waters recede, the problems facing these rural Americans will continue to deepen. Meeting the basic requirement of food, water, shelter and medical assistance in isolated rural communities will be an ongoing struggle with its own unique challenges: distance from medical and commercial centers, washed out roads and bridges, downed power lines, and poor communications.
Initial estimates suggest that damage from the hurricane bearing down on our farm families alone will exceed $1 billion. This does not begin to quantify the vast toll the disaster will take on rural families and communities in areas such as insuring utilities are operable, testing and getting water flowing, and delivering goods to local retail stores.
Many of the challenges facing rural communities across the United States, such as soaring fuel prices, are choking our rural communities that have been directly hit by this storm. The average price for gas hovers near $3 per gallon nationally. Rural communities are especially hard hit because families often have long commutes, and large farm equipment use large amounts of fuel.
Rural Americans in other parts of the country have also felt the pain of loss this year as droughts, floods and other national disasters have taken their toll on in the Midwest and across our nation. These communities can share a painful story that was amplified by Katrina’s destruction.
Hurricane Katrina’s devastation has further demonstrated what many rural Americans have known for years: rural communities often lack sufficient deputy sheriffs, police, firefighters and other first responders to get the job done. The infrastructure that can make a life-saving difference during a crisis was obviously lacking. We must do better.
It shouldn’t take a disaster to draw attention to the need to invest in rural America’s capability to protect and defend its citizens. County and Parish leaders have been telling Washington for years of these needs. Rural Members of Congress have echoed these pleas. Our colleagues, Representatives Gene Taylor (MS) and Charlie Melancon (LA), members of the Democratic Rural Working Group, had their Congressional Districts ravaged. They have been vocal champions in warning Congress of the inequity of support for rural first responders and infrastructure. Now Washington must heed these calls for more resources.
It is more critical than ever that Members of Congress representing rural districts, Democrats and Republicans alike, work together to meet the unique and pressing needs of rural communities that have been decimated by disaster.
We must remain focused on immediate needs: the farm families experiencing near total losses, the school districts desperately needing resources to reopen, the hospitals with closed doors, and the families who have lost their homes. There are grandmothers today who already lived month to month. Now, they must struggle to rebuild a cherished home where their children were raised. We must concentrate on the business of recovery and rebuilding.
We know is the people in rural Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are resourceful and resolute – they will rebuild and emerge from this disaster stronger than before. We, as members of the Democratic Rural Working Group, will stand by these resilient Americans and ensure that their needs, both immediate and long term are fully met. We are one America, one American family, and we will move forward together to build a thriving, better Gulf Coast.
CONGRESSMAN COLIN PETERSON (D-MN)
Ranking Democrat, Committee on Agriculture
CONGRESSMAN BENNIE THOMPSON (D-MS)
Ranking Democrat, Committee on Homeland Security
CONGRESSWOMAN ROSA DELAURO (D-CT)
Ranking Democrat, Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture and Rural America
CONGRESSMAN BOB ETHERIDGE (D-NC)
Co-Chair, Democratic Rural Working Group
CONGRESSWOMAN STEPHANIE HERSETH (D-SD)
Co-Chair, Democratic Rural Working Group
|
