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It is difficult to imagine the magnitude of the
devastation left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Those of us who experienced the great ice storm of
1998 know how it feels to lack water and electricity
and rebuild after our homes, schools and business
were destroyed. Our experiences pale in comparison
to the hundreds of thousands that have lost their
homes, possessions, livelihoods, and even lives to
this overwhelming national disaster that has
impacted not only Alabama, Mississippi and
Louisiana, but all the states that have generously
offered assistance, including Texas, Tennessee, and
our own great state of Maine. And it is with that
spirit of compassion that Mainers across from
Presque Isle to Bath have offered to help in this
tremendous time of need.
About 500 Maine families have offered to house
evacuees and our state is offering to accommodate
400 people at the former Loring Air Force Base and
Cutler Naval Air Station. Some Mainers have even
gone down to the Gulf region to provide assistance.
Thirty American Red Cross personnel from Maine, two
firefighters from York, five forest rangers,
search-and-rescue teams, and regional medical
assistance team members are currently providing
relief in the hardest hit areas. Maine has also
pledged additional assistance if it is needed,
including Maine National Guard members,
firefighters, and paramedic teams.
Individual Mainers have also taken the initiative
to aid the victims by offering money, clothing, and
other necessities. For example, students at Lawrence
High School in Fairfield have launched a ‘dollar
campaign’ to raise money for victims of the
Hurricane, Lions Club members are staging a massive
pick up of supplies that will then be transported to
victims and Boy Scouts across the state have been
organizing bottle drives to help raise money.
Like my fellow Mainers, I also take my commitment
to aiding the Gulf States very seriously. As Chair
of the Senate Subcommittee on Oceans and Fisheries,
I have called upon Secretary of Commerce Carlos
Gutierrez to declare a commercial fisheries failure
in the Gulf of Mexico. Commercial fishermen were
especially hard hit by Hurricane Katrina with
countless vessels and facilities severely damaged
and much of the coastline destroyed. They will need
federal assistance to rebuild their economy and
livelihoods.
Small businesses are engines of economic growth
throughout the country, and they will be essential
to the Gulf region’s recovery. We must act to give
small businesses a fighting chance to survive the
economic disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina,
because helping small businesses get back to
business as usual will provide the needed momentum
to revive the economy of the entire region.
As Chair of the Senate Committee on Small
Business and Entrepreneurship, I have proposed a
variety of measures to provide essential relief.
These measures include raising the maximum amount of
Small Business Administration (SBA) disaster loans
and designating hard-hit areas as HUBzones, which
would expand opportunities for small businesses to
win federal contracts. I promise to leverage the
authority of the Small Business Administration (SBA)
to provide real relief to those who have been left
without the means to restart their futures.
As an American, I have watched with horror at the
tremendously inadequate response from all levels of
government to assist those in need. With the
seemingly incomprehensible images of devastation on
television, we must expect that the federal
government is up to the task. Yet, the only federal
agency that has performed beyond our expectations
has been the Coast Guard. Within hours of Katrina’s
landfall, the Coast Guard launched their search and
rescue teams, and have to date rescued over 32,000
people from the air and from the water, including
hospital evacuations. Admiral Tom
Collins, Commandant of the Coast Guard, told me that
since Katrina hit, the service has saved more lives
during the last two weeks than it has in the last
8-10 years. They have saved and evacuated over
32,000 hurricane victims so far, with 11,870 saved
by air resources, 10,950 by surface resources, and
9,471 evacuated from hospitals. This is
the kind of response we should expect from the
federal government. In fact, I believe the Coast
Guard should serve as the model for disaster
response.
In order to rebuild the many lives and places
affected by Hurricane Katrina, we must all work
together and do our part. There are many things that
need to be done on many levels – from a federal,
state and local government response to individual
acts of kindness that will help the South not only
rebuild, but recover to what it once was. We must
focus first and foremost on helping those whose
lives have been irrevocably changed by this disaster
and then move on to repairing the infrastructure and
economy. But I am sure that we will be able to
accomplish this because when America comes together,
we can realize great things.
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