May 27, 2020

ICYMI: Gary Peters Tours And Assesses Historic Flood Damage In Midland County

Over the weekend, U.S. Senator Gary Peters, Ranking Member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) joined FEMA Regional Administrator James Joseph and other elected officials to tour and assess the damage from historic flooding in Midland County and meet with local first responders and volunteers.

As Ranking Member of HSGAC overseeing FEMA, Gary is coordinating with FEMA to respond to flooding in mid-Michigan and get Michiganders the relief and resources they need.

Read about U.S. Senator Gary Peters’ visit to tour and assess flood damage in Midland County:

MSNBC’s Morning Joe: Senator says his state hit hard by virus and flooding

“I had an opportunity to walk through the town and it’s just absolutely devastating – what happened. And it happened in a flash as the dam broke and this water came rushing through the town. The image that, I will never forget that image, just the destruction and to think how quickly it happened and how people’s lives were upended instantly. At the same time that we’re all dealing with a pandemic is certainly really a terrible, terrible thing to have happened.”

Detroit Free Press: Peters, Stabenow blast private ownership of major infrastructure in wake of Midland flood

Both Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow issued strong rebukes Saturday for the owners of the Edenville and Stanford dams, whose failures earlier this week caused water from the Tittabawassee River to flood neighboring communities and render two man-made lakes nothing more than mud pits.

“First and foremost, we have to be focused on the short term,” Peters said. “But we have to make sure these kinds of disasters don’t happen in the future. This is something that could have been prevented. We had dams that were clearly weakened.”

The two Democratic senators joined U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Midland, Midland Mayor Maureen Donker, James K. Joseph of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other state and local leaders to take an aerial tour of the devastation caused by flooding that began Tuesday when the Edenville Dam and Sanford Dam were breached and failed structurally.

The politicians set aside partisanship to thank both sides of the aisle with their rapid response to declare the area a state and federal disaster and laying the groundwork for getting aid to impacted mid-Michigan communities.

Detroit News: Lawmakers visit Midland saying flood ‘may have been prevented’

U.S. Senators Gary Peters, Debbie Stabenow and U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Midland, toured the flood-ravaged area on Saturday with Federal Emergency Management Agency officials.

After taking an aerial survey of the damage with FEMA Regional Administrator James K. Joseph, they drove through Sanford, where some impacted residents are cleaning up and holding drives for food and supplies.

After being up close to the devastation, the lawmakers were united in saying “this can’t happen again,” and are focusing on mitigation and making investments ahead of time.

“We have to wait until there’s a full investigation, but certainly it may have been prevented had we had a stronger dam there that could withstand it,” Peters said. “I think we need to be looking at federal regulation when it comes to dams generally … When we know there are those kinds of vulnerabilities, people downstream need to know the risks.”

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