Oct 06 2015

Graham Speaks About Historic Flooding In South Carolina

Contact: Kevin Bishop (864) 250-1417 or Clint Riddle (202) 224-5972

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) spoke in the Senate last night about the historic flooding in South Carolina. He made these statements.

• “To the people without power, whose houses are under water, whose cars have been devastated, those who've lost loved ones, we're definitely thinking about you. We're pulling together in our state.” http://bit.ly/1JPUenT

• “This is sort of the worst of nature coming our way but I think we met it with the best of human nature.” http://bit.ly/1jb3aPy

• “We're not going to ask for a penny more than we need. This is not about fixing problems unrelated to this event. This is about appropriately dealing with this event and nothing more.” http://bit.ly/1MWyfjJ

• “I cannot tell you from the Charleston shooting to this how tough it's been for our state. When it's all said and done we're going to be together and come out stronger. And to the families who are thinking their world has come to an end, God willing, it will get better. The water will pass and we'll start surveying the damage, and we'll help those who need help.” http://bit.ly/1L4lJMc

• “To the people of my state, to the first responders, to all who have been involved in trying to take care of your fellow citizens, God bless you.” http://bit.ly/1OVwWEM

######

FULL TRANSCRIPT OF REMARKS:

Thank you, Mr. President. I just returned from South Carolina. I'm sure many members of the body are watching this drama unfold on television. I've never seen anything like it. I was in the Charleston area over the weekend. 18 inches in about 24 hours.

Columbia, South Carolina, is really under siege as a 1,000-year historic rain.

I'm not a meteorologist but it seems everything bad that could happen did happen. All 46 counties received federal emergency declaration. There's been a verbal request for a major disaster declaration for 11 counties, 1,300 national guardsmen deployed, 7,000 more on stand-by. The state troopers, the entire trooper force is on the road. 1,250 South Carolina DOT maintenance employees working, 550 road closures, 150 bridge closures, 26,000 and climbing without power. 40,000 and climbing without water. Nine deaths and the economic damage we don't know yet.

There will be an insurance component and there will be a disaster relief component. As we get through this and look at the damages, that comes later, and we will ask only that is what is responsible.

We're not going to ask the federal government to do anything that's beyond the responsibility of the government and not turn this thing into a pile-on party.

The bottom line is I really appreciate my colleagues coming up and offering their assistance and their prayers for the people of South Carolina, our governor, the entire infrastructure, the emergency management system in South Carolina has done a very good job. More is coming.

The rain is about to depart the area, but we'll have runoff from the Upstate of South Carolina that will flow down to the coast and run right through the communities that have been hit the hardest, so there's a second wave of water coming.

My sister lives in the Columbia area, and I can just tell you there are very few families in South Carolina not affected by this. Manning, South Carolina, is virtually under water. So, we're thinking about the people of South Carolina.

It's what I've heard from all of my colleagues. Senator Schumer called, the Vice President called. I just appreciate all of your concern and your prayers. We will hopefully get this behind us soon in terms of the rainfall and start building up some levies and dams that are about to break.

I worry about the bridges, damage to our bridges. I don't think we appreciate how extensive it is.

This is sort of the worst of nature coming our way but I think we met it with the best of human nature.

From what I can tell, people at home have really been working together trying to slug through this. I would echo what the governor said -- stay in your homes, it is so dangerous out there. Anybody who has to be rescued because they're out looking around or taking photos are draining resources from people under siege.

On behalf of Tim Scott and myself, we're going to do whatever we can with our House delegation to make sure that our state is taken care of in an appropriate fashion. And hopefully by the end of this week we will begin to survey the damage.

But unfortunately, there is more coming as the runoff from the Upstate makes its way to the coast.

This was a, literally a perfect storm of things coming together to take water from a hurricane and create a river of rain. I've never seen anything like it and I've lived in the state all my life.

To the people without power, whose houses are under water, whose cars have been devastated, those who've lost loved ones, we're definitely thinking about you. We're pulling together in our state.

2015 has been a miserable year for the state of South Carolina. Some of the worst things have happened, and we're still hanging in there. Everybody is clinging to each other in a very heartwarming way. I'm sure there will be some exceptions to that rule. Curfews are in place, but the vast majority of South Carolinians are rising to the occasion. I was talking to the governor last night and we cannot wait to get this incident behind us.

I cannot tell you from the Charleston shooting to this how tough it's been for our state. When it's all said and done we're going to be together and come out stronger. And to the families who are thinking their world has come to an end, God willing, it will get better. The water will pass and we'll start surveying the damage, and we'll help those who need help.

We're not going to ask for a penny more than we need. This is not about fixing problems unrelated to this event. This is about appropriately dealing with this event and nothing more.

So I want to thank the President and the members of the body who have offered your prayers and wishes for the people of South Carolina.

To the people of my state, to the first responders, to all who have been involved in trying to take care of your fellow citizens, God bless you.

The governor and her team, I know you're working so hard. I would just like to end this with a request for prayers. Any money that people can send will be much appreciated because there are people today that have lost everything they worked for all of their life.

It is days like this that makes you appreciate one another and there is a role for the government to play here. But at the end of the day it's going to be people helping people with the government providing some resources. But we'll have to help each other. There's no substitute for neighbor taking care of neighbor here.