.. >> there's no doubt about that. in my state of north dakota, we were hit by record floods, records that are so far exceeding anything ever in recorded history, that you have to wonder what is happening. i just say so those who are listening -- two major river systems in our state were affected. this headline for the daily news really says it all -- "swampedded". this is our fourth largest town. in 48 hours, the level of the flood was increased, the projection, 10 feet. i mean, there's no way you can respond in 48 hours to an increase in the projection had 10 feet. that is inhumanly -- humanly not possible to defend a town. a wall of water was headed our way, more than 11,000 residents were evacuated. this is three and a half feet higher in terms of the flood level than the record recorded flood of 1881, so we're dealing with something that is so far outside our experience that it's hard to even talk about. the damage to this town was dramatic, more than 4,000 homes were swamped for weeks and many of them destroyed. rebuilding this city will take years, and bismarck, our capitol city, and its sister city, were hit by historic flooding. for those along the missouri river, one of the most frustrating aspects of the problem was the ever-changing forecast with a forecast of a release of 10,000cfs's to ultimately 150,000cff's, ten times what is normal. this is the highest releases ever in recorded history. flooding of this magnitude was not seen since the garrison dam was operatal. hundreds of families were forced from their homes, two of my employees, one of whom will not be back into her home until next year. her and her family have been living in my apartment because their house is absolutely so badly damaged that they can't get back. here's just one example of the havoc this flood caused. as you can see, this family, like many others, had built a sandbag dike around their home. the volume of the water it moved with such speed that it cut a new channel and created a hole that claimed this home. focus in the near term must be clearly on repairing damage to flood control systems. we also need additional federal support for families and businesses so they have some chance to recover. many of my constituents are concerned that they'll face another flood next year because we have record amounts of water in the system, and the forecast is for more record rainfall. i believe that requires us to review the operations of the master manual. just sticking with what's been done is not good enough. finally, i want to thank very sincerely, both general walsh and general mcmahon for their service and their service of the entire team. they did wage truly heroic efforts to defend these cities and towns, and we'll never forget those efforts. at the same time, we're in our duty not to acknowledge the master manual operating instructions is not going to cut it in these extraordinary weather conditions we confront. i thank the committee. >> thank you so much. senator conrad. senator rocks, we welcome -- senator roberts, we welcome you. >> thank you, and thank you for the hearing with my good friend, jim inhofe, who will be in the issue for some time. i don't know what we did to mother nature, but she has not acted in a very welcome way. starting in may and lasting through september, however, living along the missouri river were protecting their property with regards amount of water, four kansas counties were serious rainfall away from catastrophe. as explained to me, it's the spigot, and it was wide open. there was little or no management control once the water was released. thankfully, no major rain events occurred, otherwise i'd be discussing the loss of life and significant property damage. i say that very humbley because many experienced disasters with fields that were damminged and destroyed #, not to mention the cost enduned by local and state governments to sandbag and watch levies for sand boils and water over toppings. back in july, i joined my friend and former colleague on a tour of the flooding from kansas city to ellwood. we visited the first responders and the government officials, operate -- offered assistance time and time again. we heard how the river was mismanaged #. the master manual needs additional emphasis placed on the top priority and that priority is flood control. i have heard from all but one upset farmer with flooded fields in the past decade that the tail is wagging the dock, and too much emphasis 1 put on recreation, fish, and wildlife through a spring pulse and water quality. now, these purposes are congressionally approved. they should to the hinder the primary purpose of flood control. the dogs should not wag its tail. congress should ensure the core is putting control above all else. that is why earlier this summer we introduced s. 1377, the bill taking into account all the available data in conducting missouri river basing operations. i know that nobody knows where the next rainfall event occurs, how much falls, and in any amount of time nor can anyone estimate this winter's snow pack, but there's now a new precipitation record. we have to ensure this latest data is incorporated and used in a timely fashion in any and all army corp. of engineer management decisions in order to limit to the great education extent possible a flood of this year's mag any nude from ever occurring again. i thank the chair. >> thank you, senator. senator johnson, we're happy you're here. please proceed. >> thank you, chairman boxer for holding this hearing to examine this year's flooding. i appreciate the opportunity to provide brief remarks. flooding is our nation's most common form of natural disaster, and this is also the most costly. though we can never fully eliminate the risk of flooding, it is crucial that we continually evaluate the condition of our flood control infrastructure and the effectiveness of our management practices. in south dakota, we are no stranger to natural disasterring, but this year's missouri river flooding has been unprecedented in scope and duration. people have been displaced from homes and businesses for months, and they are facing long months of clean up ahead. utilities and drinking water infrastructure has suffered significant damage in communities and on indian reservations along the missouri. the economic and emotional impacts of the flooding have been tremendous. what has been particularly far shorting for many south dakotans is they are living some of the most flood infrastructure in the united states. south dakota is home to six -- to four of the six mainstream dams and reservoirs constructed by the core of engineers after passage of the flood control act of 1994. the historic flood of 1881, these dams and reservoirs were not sufficient to accommodate the run off p 201 # 1. management of this system has always created tension in the basin, but in this year's flooding, concerns were management is higher than ever. in addition to our physical infrastructure, we need to consider mitigation and options to limit damages when flooding occurs. chairman of the banking committee, i would have been working with my colleagues to reauthorize the national flood insurance program, a premier means for residents and businesses to mitigate the risks of financial loss in the event of flooding. there are no easy answer, but the issue of flood control on the missouri river is vitally important to the economy and people of south dakota. i look forward to working with you to better understand the risks and improve flood control in the missouri river basis. again, thank you, chairman boxer and ranking member inhofe for holding this important hearing. >> thank you. before we hear from the rest of the colleagues, senator ben nelson, welcome. >> thank you. thank you, madam chair, and ranking member inhofe for holding today's hearing. i'm particularly grateful the committee has given us the opportunity to talk about the state's experiences, and i encourage the committee to very closely examine what led to such unprecedented flooding and helped develop the necessary procedures to future events will be less destructive. in nebraska, we're working on getting a full handle on the total devra davisation, but -- devastation, but fema calculated assistance and they provided $3.86 million in the assistance for individual assistance. the cost is not just limited to brick and mortar. so far, the usda risk management agency paid out $13 million in flooding this year. farm land in the north and richardson counties in the southeast has been submerged for mormts. not only did it cost producers their crops, but the damage to the land could keep them from planting in those fields for years to come and perhaps never. you can rebuild structures, but thousands of acres of land now silted and destroyed crop land may never return to productivity, so to that end, i appreciate the committee to invite the director department of natural resources to discuss the unique challenges facing our state. given the immense, long term, costly damage the flood cost, it's necessary for congress to get answers as to what went wrong and what steps must we take to avoid such destruction. i'll have the opportunity to visit with brig deed general mcmahon later this week, but i hope the committee takes the opportunity to ask the corp. important questions as to what have they learned to the tragedy, and what steps will it take to better respond to such record proportions? i'm deeply concerned with the corp.'s 2011-2012 operating plan and the corp.'s unwillingness to adjust the amount of water the rereceiverring can hold in response -- reserves can hold in response to last year's runoff. doing the same thing and hoping for a different result is not acceptable. if more capacity would have cost less than medduation, perhaps we should talk about what adjustments we make to the structures themselves. i also hope the committee learns more about the corp.'s post assessment process currently underway. i'm aware of their internal review and multiple disciplined team of experts, but i hope the committee and the staff will explore this process in this time line. finally, i'd like to stress the need for expediting work along the way in the missouri levy, and i thank the chair and ranking member for commitment of listening to local individuals of what's required in each state. it's crucial the corp. gives us a complete assessment of the damages, estimated cost, and time line for repairs to be completed. i don't want a discuss on climate change, you what we ought to is there are patterns ever weather changes that we need to be prepared for changes in the future, not expecting to wait for another thousand years for another epic flood. thank you, madam chair, thank you, senator inhofe. >> thank you very much. we'll call up the second panel of colleagues. senator john thune, roy brunt, hoven, and -- we welcome you. do we have somebody changing the name plates 1234 all -- plates? all right. here we go. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> senators and conmen, welcome to -- congressmen, welcome to you all. you have busy days, we understand that. as soon as you're complete, feel free to go to your next obligation. senator john thune, we welcome you. senator thune. >> thank you, madam chair for holding this important hearing, and i appreciate the examination you with giving to this important issue. unlike a normal disaster like a hurricane that happens in a brief amount of time as victims are able to recover and move on, the flooding in south dakota lasted over 90 days displays families from homes with tremendous economic impact on businesses and communities along the missouri river. the flood started memorial day and lasted until labor day. many who had homes damaged or destroyed never purchased flood insurance because they were told their homes were not at risk. i categorize the flood of 2011 as a hybrid between a natural and manmade disaster. i believe human error crickets to the -- contributed to the disaster. we have to learn from the mistakes and make adjustments to ensure similar disasters do not occur in the future. march 1 is when the system needs a required amount of storage or empty space to accumulate the average runoff from the winter snow pack. the corp. has not required all amount of empty space on march 1. throughout the month of march, the empty space filled up with runoff exceeding expectations. by march 31st, the storage space was erased. the reservoir was nearly seven feet higher than expected at the end of the march. despite the rapid increase, the corp. did not accommodate for the di asianal -- additional water. the reservoirs were above expectations, but they did not respond with discharges to compensate for the inflow in february and march allowing the system to be near capacity on may 1 unable to store the runoff. the main thing to take athey is the corp. failed in understanding the amount of risk the snow packs contained resulting 234 a series of events that led to a more serious flood than otherwise occurred. the question i think the members of this committee need to ask the corp. today is why didn't they release more water along the missouri river dam system in march, april, and play when they knew they were losing storage capacity and inflows were above normal capacity. corp. leadership responds to the question by saying they would have needed perfect foresight to predict the massive amount of rain in montana in may, but a lot of experts and foreign observers saw early on severe flooding was likely coming in the spring and summer. everybody sawing coming owner the corp. of engineer who is in charge of manning the river. some degree of flooding was going to happen in south dakota regardless of what the corp. did or didn't do, but the corp. thought they could fill up the entire amount of empty space in the system by may gambling the snow pack was gone with no precipitation in may. because they miscalculated on the snow pack r, they never fully communicated what preparation and what level was going to be needed until it was too late. i would say, madam chair, and other members of the committee, going forward, flood control needs to be the top priority for the corp., and this is something to be modified or reflected in the master manual governing the management of the missouri river, and i fear the corp. is flanking to move forward under assumption this was a one-off event. my understanding is they are planning to have the same space in the system next year as this year. i think that's a risky proposition as we are in a wet sickle, and i hope the corp. will not repeat mistakes next year or in future years that occurred this year. keep in mind, the reservoir system is not as capable for the 2012 runoff season as it was this year as a result of the stress the system witnessed. i said throughout this entire debacle this summer the corp. of engineers needed to be held to account for the management of the river system this year, and i hope this hearing marks an accountability moment for the corp.. got my own statement i'd like to submit for the report. i'd like to build on the record by providing written statements provided by the mayor, south dakota ?urnz director -- ?urnz director, and the community improvement district and ask the staples also appear in the record. i make one fiebl observation, too, and i also want to include a statement by brad lawrence, the public works director for the city who on february 1 predicted a flood of biblical proportions based upon the research he had done at that time. his statement, his narrative, i think, is very compelling, and when you look at the arguments, the statements he was already making at that early point in the process, it's hard to feature why we ended up where we were. madam chair, thank you for the opportunity to testify before your committee this morning. >> senator, thank you very much. senator blunt. >> thank you for holding this hearing. yesterday, october the 16th, the corp. announced that the missouri river flood was officially over. now, we've had lots of flooding in our state over the years, and usually it's a few days or a few weeks in april or may. october the 16th, the corp. announced that the flood was officially over. this was is flood that started in senator baucus' state over five months ago, five months of flooding, and in missouri, we had significant amounts of the state that were underwater for three and four months and while no disaster response is perfect, it's important to learn from the past, and i think as senator thune just mentioned, failing to account for disaster events or mistakes and dismissing disasters as unlikely to occur again simply isn't good enough. over the past year, missouri and the entire country faced a 234u6r78 natural -- number of natural disasters. as we work to rebuild, there's a lot to be done. colonel anthony, the kansas city corp. commander said again yesterday calls an official into the flood, that the corp. has $27.7 million set aside for repairings. at a hearing last week, they said they needed $1 billion for to bring the river management system back to where it was at the beginning of the year, so we have $27 million set aside, we need $1 billion, not to get the system better than it was in january, but just to get the system back to where it was in january, and, of course, as we look at that, we see counties like colt county massachusetts where 16 -- colt county missouri where 165,000 acres were under water for the summer. bird's point was at 130,000 acres, not nearly as impacted as the 165,000 acres in colt county. they were able to get a crop in even though there were lots of early crop loss, but overall over 400,000 acres underwater at some time this year, half the size of the entire state of rhode island, and a lot of 400,000 acres was underwater for three and four months, and we haven't ever seen anything like that before. as one county commissioner, i think, well said about the impact of these floods which took out interstate highways, county roads, state roads, one time five bridges over the missouri river that where missouri is on one side of the bridge, was closed, and as a county commissioner talked about all jobs impacted, and he says the factory doesn't get back to work until the roads are rebuild, the roads restored with the flood protection, and flood protection not restored unless congress provides the funding. thank you for the hearing, i have a statement for the record, and i'll summit. >> thank you for that cycle of virtue you laid out here because it's ceer. we're key to the whole thing here. thank you very much. >> thank you for the opportunity to testify this morning, also to ranking member inhofe, thank you very much. we had record flooding in north dakota, record flooding in our state this year. we had it on the red river on the shyian river, james river, missouri river, and on the river managed by the corp., we had 4,000 homes that were either completely destroyed or partially destroyed. according to fema, is now one of their largest housing efforts, just in the community, to get people into housing before winter comes. they said it's their third largest housing effort after katrina and ike. that's just one example. that's what we're facing. in the case, we're working with the corp. now, not only the other agencies to not only rebuild the defenses, but we need to see specifically from the corp. what their plan is going to be. we're working with cornel price, the commander of the st. paul district on a flood protection plan for next year to be sure we don't have a repeat in that community of the flooding we had this year if we continue to have the wet conditions we're having right now. in bismarck, same thing. as senator thune just mentioned and senator conrad mentioned earlier and as others