Clinton Consoles Northwest Flood Victims

President Clinton toured flood-stricken sections of Oregon and Washington on Wednesday, consoling mud-spattered families and checking relief efforts in a region where swirling waters have killed eight and caused an estimated $620 million in damage.

The daylong swing and a stop on Friday in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., were intended to permit Clinton to show off one function of the federal government--the disaster relief programs--that few would question. And the photogenic tour showed Clinton in a flattering nonpartisan light as his GOP rivals settled in for a final week of ideological debate before the New Hampshire primary.

Arriving in Portland in the morning, Clinton flew by helicopter along the swollen Columbia River on his way to the blue-collar border town of Woodland, Wash.

Later, he doubled back to Portland to inspect damage along the Willamette River, moved on to Boise, Idaho, and took part in a conference call with state disaster relief officials. Then he flew on to an overnight stop in New Jersey.

“I hope you can keep your spirits up,” Clinton told residents of Woodland, which is 23 miles north of Portland. “This will pass--it will get better.”

To a group of about 200 Woodland homeowners gathered on a street, he promised: “I will do everything I can to see that we move as quickly as possible and do as much as we can.”

Clinton toured the ranch-style home of Douglas Jungnickel, a retired log trucker, which had been submerged when the Columbia River poured into his backyard.

The family had spread most of their soaked possessions in the yard, including bureaus, couches and a wooden cat’s house. Jungnickel’s World War II uniform was hanging on the back porch to dry.

“To see you out here with ordinary people like this, it’s going to give people faith and comfort all around,” Jungnickel told Clinton after the president toured his home. Though he hadn’t yet gotten around to applying for federal flood insurance, Jungnickel declared that he would vote for the president in November.

Clinton’s tour of the Northwest came 2 1/2 weeks after the beginning of winter storms that brought the floods. But the White House has made no bones about its desire to show off the Federal Emergency Management Administration, the disaster relief agency that has been a political plus for the administration through several scores of disasters in Clinton’s term.

“Does the president brag about that record? Absolutely, because it’s an important part of the work he’s done as president,” White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said this week.

The northwestern states of Washington, Oregon, Montana and Idaho have all been declared disaster areas because of the Northwest flooding that began Jan. 26. The floods, among the worst ever to hit the region, have brought 3,500 applications for federal disaster aid in Washington and a similar number in Oregon.

James Lee Witt, director of FEMA, said that the agency is now getting relief money to flood victims in a week to 10 days, compared to 30 days a few years ago.

In the Washington town of Waynesboro, half the 600 homes have 2 to 3 feet of silt in them, Witt said. The agency is helping the city of Portland put in a new filtering system for the city water supply, after the floods damaged existing equipment.

In Washington, 19 of the state’s 39 counties have declared emergencies. In Oregon, many communities are now well into their cleanup, though towns in the Coast Range, northwest of Portland, are still struggling.

Witt said that the winter has made it a record year for disasters. Already, 10 states have been declared disaster areas: Washington, Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Oregon, Idaho and Vermont have been designated because of flooding. Georgia was named a disaster area because of tornadoes.