Clinton Views Flooding, Boosts Federal Aid

Addressing a crowd of flood victims living in a cavernous Air Force hangar, President Clinton announced Tuesday that the federal government will take the unusual step of reimbursing 100% of the cost of all immediate emergency work in the disaster zone.

After touring the flooded communities of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks, Minn., by helicopter, Clinton said that he had never seen a disaster like the one that has devastated this area with a combination of floods, fires and blizzard.

Clinton referred to television images he had seen of people “stacking sandbags in a blizzard” as “the strangest thing I’ve ever seen in a disaster.”

The president said that he was asking Congress for another $200 million in federal aid for North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota--bringing the total of aid requested to almost $500 million. Although the federal government usually covers 75% of the costs of emergency disaster relief, Clinton said that he was seeking 100% because of the extent of the damage.

During his half-hour helicopter flight, Clinton viewed fire-gutted buildings, soaked farmland and neighborhoods submerged in sewage-tainted water.

“Every one of those little houses is another life story,” Clinton said as he stared out the window of the Marine helicopter.

The Red River of the North has forced roughly 50,000 of the residents of Grand Forks from their homes, and it is likely to be weeks before the dispirited refugees can return to find what--if anything--is left there.

The hangar at Grand Forks Air Force Base--filled with green cots, stale air and the sound of parents trying to comfort troubled children--was serving as a temporary shelter for 2,400 flood refugees, many of them low-income families and elderly persons with nowhere else to go.

For Tina Johnson, her husband and their three children, the flood may have washed away the long-nurtured seeds of a new life.

After relying on public assistance for six years, Johnson’s husband found a steady job as a maintenance worker three years ago and the couple finally had saved enough money to move their family into a new apartment and buy some furniture and a television set--just a month before the flood.

“We pulled ourselves up, worked really hard and the river took it all away,” Johnson said.

Now Johnson worries that the hard times will again trap her family.

“I’m scared we’ll be homeless and that my husband will lose his job,” Johnson said. “If there aren’t programs to help us, I don’t know what we’re going to do.”

The $200 million in federal assistance Clinton requested Tuesday could be used for flood control programs; grants and loans to farms, businesses and individuals; repairs on roads, bridges and other public facilities; rehabilitation of farmland and agriculture and livestock programs.

“We are going to be here over the long run,” Clinton assured community leaders during an earlier meeting, where he heard emotional accounts from local officials and rescue workers.

Kurt Kruen, whose home and business were flooded, told the president what it felt like to be told to evacuate.

“It’s very, very disheartening when you’re asked to leave your own home and the water is running down your street,” said Kruen, who for weeks had been leading sandbag brigades and directing work on dikes. “You can’t believe the emotion that goes through your mind when you can’t stop something that you know is going to devastate your friends.”