we also heard a gentleman and you may have heard him just before we came to you who said he wouldn t plant anything in the ground for at least a year. he s very concerned about soil contamination. i ve spent some time on the local ohio epa website looking at what s being put up by the on site contamination folks. i am not finding in my search information on soil testing. is the soil being tested? erica, it is, and let s just you know, what we should say up front is we are shifting into the cleanup mode and so, number one, we ve issued a letter of liability to norfolk southern. they will be responsible and accountable for this cleanup. and as we do the testing and as we conduct the cleanup we will be able to inform the public as to when it s safe for some of these various activities that they like to pursue. this is fresh and we understand everyone is concerned. sure. but we are with the community. right.
these storms hit us like a water balloon exploding and just dropped water down through our rivers and creeks, so it s been this excessive amount of flooding. reporter: blast after blast of torrential rain and wind gusts exceeding 70 miles per hour on california s central coast. we re soaked. this place is soaked. reporter: santa cruz county tuesday was in cleanup mode after the most recent storm. it s just from water everywhere and it s just rushing through. it was going fast. we had a canoe strapped up we thought if we needed to you can canoe out but it was moving too fast. reporter: rachel has lived here for 20 years, her neighborhood and home now covered in mud. it s back-breaking labor and, you know, a lot of us that live here in the neighborhood are elderly and can t actually physically do the cleanup. reporter: there s been little rest for emergency workers. dozens rescued in santa cruz
marked this way. but thiney re expecting those numbers to go up as they assess the damage. california needs water. but not like this. creeks turning into raging rivers. mudslides barrelling through neighborhoods. and sink holes swallowing cars. they just dropped water down through our rivers and creeks so it s an excessive amount of floodsing. reporter: blast of blast of rain and wind gusts exceeding 70 miles per hour on california s central coast. we re soaked. this place is soaked. reporter: the water tormenting people across the state. it was a lot of excitement, fear, anxiety, stress. reporter: santa cruz county tuesday, was in cleanup mode after the most recent storm.
of voting on a rules package. they spent much of the weekend essentially in cleanup mode trying to show americans that the next two years won t be defined by this type of infighting. ohio republican jim jordan who slated to chair the house judiciary committee said democracy is messy and that s how the founder sort of intended it. steve scalise, of course, is mccarthy s deputy on capitol hill. he argued these types of open disputes are healthy. but to be clear, mccarthy is on thin ice. kit take just one member to trigger a vote that could potentially lead to him being ousted from the job. we ve got freedom caucus members who know they have that tool at their disposal. they re kind of coy about what it would take to take such a dramatic step. take a listen.
with republicans in the wake of mccarthy s chaotic scramble to the speakership. we look forward to trying to find some reasonable republicans who are willing to break from the extreme elements of their conference to do the business of the american people. cnn s eva mckend has more on what s at stake as lawmakers gather on capitol hill today. reporter: all eyes really now turn to the newly republican controlled house as speaker kevin mccarthy works to keep his party unified ahead of voting on a house rules package monday. house republicans spent much of the weekend essentially in cleanup mode trying to reassure americans that despite the chaotic episodes and frankly near brawl that we all saw play out last week and the brutal effort to rally behind a speaker that the next two years won t be defined by this type of infighting. jim jordan slated to chair the house judiciary committee said