own situation, but to no avail. It must require some concerted action of size and magnitude such as experience and a proper survey will bring out. I would appreciate your reaction and comment as to H. R. 4485 and what can and should be done. With kind personal regards. THE BENNETT CREAMERY CO., By F. R. BENNETT, Vice President. Hon. JOHN H. OVERTON, THE FEDERAL MATERIALS CO., INC., United States Senate, Washington, D. C. Dear SENATOR OVERTON: Our plant is located on the southern part of our city's river front and is one of many large industrial plants, including the big Marquette Cement Co., that are being threatened in recent years by Missouri and Mississippi River floods. These floods are certainly increasing in severity and frequency, and we need not only local protection, but we are also interested in the Pick plan for lowering the height of these floods by means of reservoirs and especially the reservoirs provided in the Pick plan to be constructed between St. Louis and Sioux City, Iowa. If these floodwaters could be restrained to some extent at their sources and impounded in the proposed reservoirs, so as to be let into the river later by aid of navigation, a great public benefit would be subserved. As the Pick plan has already been approved by the House and is now pending before the Senate as H. R. 4485, we surely hope that same will be passed by the Senate at an early date. Assuring you that your support of this bill in every possible way will be greatly appreciated and hoping to hear favorably from you in response to this letter, we remain, Yours truly, A. W. ZIMMER, Jr., Senator OVERTON. Mr. Trustin, I think you stated that you had to leave? Mr. TRUSTIN. Yes, Senator; early this afternoon. Senator OVERTON. The committee will be glad to hear you at this time. STATEMENT OF HARRY TRUSTIN, SUPERINTENDENT, DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS, CITY OF OMAHA, NEBR. Mr. TRUSTIN. My name is Harry Trustin. I am superintendent of the Department of Public Improvements of Omaha. I have testified here before on H. R. 4484, and also on 3961, last month. I would like to proceed if you are ready. Senator OVERTON. You may proceed. Mr. TRUSTIN. Three successive floods ravaged the Missouri River Basin during the spring of 1943, inundating 2,260,000 acres of land along the main stem and tributaries, and inflicting calculable damages, direct and indirect, that according to latest available estimates total $65,000,000. The March-April flood of 1943 which caused so much damage above Kansas City, including our great city of Omaha, was caused by the melting of snow and ice from the upper part of the basin. This flood which caused the highest stages since 1881 on the main stem from Pierre, S. Dak., to Rulo, Nebr., interrupting rail, air, and highway services, delayed production in essential industries, and inundated hundreds of thousands of acres of land along the main stem and many of the tributaries. In April 1943 that portion of our city known as East Omaha was entirely flooded, as were many thousands of acres of Nebraska land on the Missouri, north and south of Omaha. At Omaha more than 1,000 homes were evacuated during the flood and were it not for the assistance received from the Army, Red Cross, and Civilian Defense, many lives might have been lost; and had it not been for the coordi nated action of these and other groups in our city, it might have been a sad story. As it was, the damage materially to houses, household goods, personal property, roads, industries, utilities, and truck farms totaled in excess of $1,000,000. Of course, in talking of losses due to the flood, we must consider an actual large sum spent by the Government, besides the use of Army personnel on the dikes at a time when they were needed for Army tasks. May I pay tribute here to Maj. Gen. Frederick E. Uhl, who was at the time of the flood commander of the Seventh Service Command; and to now Gen. Lewis Pick, who was at the same time division engineer at Omaha, and Colonel Freeman, and other of his associates who worked unceasingly for 11 days and nights without thought of food and rest or personal discomfort while fighting the river at Omaha. They were an inspiration to the thousands of civilians who tried to hold the dikes during the flood. We were assisted with 270 pieces of Army dirt-moving equipment and on rescue work 50 pieces of Army floating equipment was used. Eight hundred thousand to a million sand bags were used in the Omaha and Council Bluffs area. 75,000 man-hours were used and it is my guess that one-third of that number were Federal troops. For all this we in Omaha are deeply grateful. But think of the necessity for these men on Army construction tasks which were so vitally necessary for the war effort during the same time. Who knows what this actually cost the American people in blood, to say nothing of money. I am most familiar with the losses at Omaha. This loss of man-hours, to say nothing of money, along the banks of the Missouri up and down the river from Omaha, must have been staggering, if known. About During this time industrial plants in the inundated area at Omaha which have vital contracts were at a standstill. Direct damage to plants and equipment was approximately $200,000 and the value of time loss amounted to about $125,000. This, of course, was a loss that was not insurable, so the individual had to try to carry this burden. At this time who can say what the loss to our war effort might have been. Now, I should like to take a minute or two to tell you of another loss. The Omaha Municipal Airport was out of service for more than 3 weeks. Night flying was not allowed for about 6 or 7 weeks Now, the Army makes use of the Omaha Airport regularly and each day transport, fighter planes, bomber planes of two and four-motor types, use these facilities. Much Army preflight training and civilian air patrol and civilian pilot training is carried on daily. Our airport at Omaha, as you know, is located on transcontinental routes and has a class 4 rating. A major military facility had been planned at the Omaha Airport and we are fairly certain that this was canceled because of the flood. There is no other airport site in the city of Omaha, and Omaha is forced to consider the creation of an airport 15 to 20 miles away from the city. We must, therefore, protect our present airport in which the Government, as well as the people of Omaha, have spent millions of dollars. Although the flood covered our airport with about 6 feet of water, we are still fortunate in that the floodwaters did not reach greater heights or it would have covered the yards of our great Union Pacific Railroad, and the Nebraska Power Co. plant which furnishes not only the light but also the power which turns the wheels of our industry, both civilian and war effort. The great American Smelting & Refining Co. at Omaha might also have suffered, and many other industrial plants of equally great importance. Now, again, in 1944, we have had and we are having serious flooding above and below Omaha, brought about, as in 1943, by the rapid runoff of the melting snow and ice in the Dakotas and the upper regions of the basin, particularly the spring break-up in the Yellowstone as it meets the Missouri River at about Williston, N. Dak. When the water reached Mobridge, in early April, it was practically coincident with the ice break-up in that locality. This added to the bank-full flow from all tributaries, produced high stages from Mobridge all the way down through South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, and so on down to the mouth at St. Louis, where we had almost 600,000 second-feet of water on the Missouri. That is this year. Due to the expenditure of a half million dollars by the people of Omaha to enlarge their levees, we were saved from another flood this year in these two cities; however, the poor farmers in this area who were not able to get this increased protection, were again inundated. For instance, a meeting was held just a few days ago at which the farmers in this one little area, Blair, just north of Omaha, asked for advice as to whether or not they dared plant their fields. Mind you, this is pretty late in June. Even though their levees were repaired, they have seen them destroyed year after year, so they are left again to conjecture. It is my understanding that the floods of 1944, so far this year, have already inundated over a million and a half acres of land and caused over $30,000,000 worth of damage. I happen to know that the Army engineers in the Missouri River Basin have already started, with their usual promptness of action, to repair the levees that have been destroyed so far this year, under the recent authorization provided by Congress, using a portion of the $12,000,000. Gentleman, I wish to point out to you that, to use a phrase, this is additional money "down the rat hole." That is no criticism of the fine spirit of Congress, but the repair of existing levees simply will not give the protection we must have. What we need is a permanent, coordinated plan such as the one General Pick and General Reybold have recommended. In the work around East Omaha in April and May 1943, to protect our city and the district which was flooded, we carefully but hurriedly constructed a dike which we hoped would hold a flood of at least one more foot of river gage than we had in April 1943. Incidentally, in April 1943, we had 222 feet, river gage. And we had to complete it in about 40 days because we have a June rise which always threatens. This was accomplished at a cost to the property owners in the district of about $500,000. I am a member of the East Omaha drainage district, so that I know we voted to get some bond money. We dared not wait for a share of the $10,000,000 emergency repair of our levees voted by Congress in July 1943 although we felt somehow this money would be voted by a sympathetic Congress. I should like to point out here the benefits that have been brought to light as a result of the work that has already been accomplished by the Army engineers. For the very first time in the history of the Missouri, in the remembrance of those living in our territory, the wild and ever meandering Missouri has been harnessed in the path blueprinted by the Army engineers. The channel stabilization work has been successful as proven by the 1943 and 1944 floods, and we thank a Congress for planning with vision, and the Army engineers for careful construction. It is for this reason that we in Omaha are 100 percent for the over-all plan for the Missouri River Basin which we know has been carefully thought over by General Pick and his associates since 1927 to 1944. It has been my happy experience to know all of the division and district engineers intimately since 1933 to date, and it was my privilege to be present at most all of the Missouri River meetings attended by General Pick, Colonel Freeman, Senators and Congressmen, farmers, businessmen, and other lay people, all of whom discussed thoroughly the plan which was outlined by General Pick, and I heard the encouraging statements of cooperation and united desire for this over-all plan. The Bureau of Reclamation was also a part of each of these public hearings and lent its support. Senator OVERTON. That is, the local representatives of the Bureau of Reclamation? Mr. TRUSTIN. No, sir; it was national representation. As I said before, it will be recalled that last summer, Gen. Lewis A. Pick, then division engineer of the Missouri River division and author of the flood control and development plan now under discussion, took time off from the direction of the greatest construction program in the history of the Middle West to visit each of the affected States and to outline to its people the program for development. The plan, as outlined by General Pick, was to store all excess water that now is not being utilized for usable purposes and which causes destruction throughout the valley during flood periods, and to put it to usable work for all beneficial purposes within the Missouri River Basin. He did not specify that navigation should have a priority claim to the water in his plan. To the contrary he stated, and I quote [reading]: In connection with the development of the multiple-purpose projects, these shown for the Missouri River will provide for the maximum practicable storage of water of the main stem. The water to be impounded in these, as well as the other multiple-purpose structures, will be utilized to produce the maximum practicable development of irrigation, navigation, power, and other multiplepurposes. However, sufficient storage will be provided in each reservoir to provide for the needs of local flood protection downstream from the reservoir as well as for the needs of the general comprehensive plan for flood control for the Missouri River Basin. To provide for the maximum utilization of the waters stored in the multiple-purpose reservoirs, a plan would be worked out for each structure in collaboration with the various water-use agencies involved. The amount of water to be made available to the Bureau of Reclamation for irrigation would be arrived at after close collaboration with that agency. The development of power potentialities would be determined in cooperation with the Federal Power Commission. Water use for other purposes would be arrived at in a similar manner. The reactions of the people, especially the upper arid section of the basin, are best reflected in an article prepared by the editor of the Bismarck Tribune, who is also vice chairman of the North Dakota Water Conservation Commission. This article concluded, and I quote [reading]: Colonel Pick is the first responsible official of the Federal Government to put into words the dream which forward-looking North Dakotans long have entertained. That is, to make the fullest use of the Missouri River, this State's greatest resource. If he fails to make his dream come true, it will not be because North Dakota failed to back him up. If he succeeds, he will become one of the greatest figures in the history of this State and a hero to every North Dakota school child for generations to come. And Gov. John Moses, of North Dakota, following Colonel Pick on a speaking program at Bismarck last August, in a speech which is printed in a pamphlet issued by the Council of State Governments on the future development of the Missouri River Valley, spoke as follows [reading]: This is something that is not politics. It is much bigger than party politics. There is room only for citizens of this country, residents of this valley, to get together and work out their problems. It took a man like Colonel Pick, with courage and vision, to bring to us here in North Dakota, as he has done in other States, a valley-wide plan. It takes courage to go before the people of these valley States in his capacity as an Army officer and suggest to the people of the States something that they ought to agree upon. It takes courage to tell them they can get this done if they will agree upon a plan that will serve all the States in the valley. It takes a man of great technical skill and ability to work out and present such a plan. And I would like to quote from an address of Senator Gerald P. Nye, speaking on this same program with Governor Moses after General Pick had presented the purposes of his plan. Senator Nye said [reading]: We are going to be able to point to the Missouri River diversion development as a practical, feasible project declared to be so by the great Corps of Army Engineers. The Government is ready for post-war planning activity. A policy will be laid down in the approaching months by Congress. It is all-important that we get those estimates. I do not see how we are going to do so except by getting together with the States and trusting the Army engineers to present a program. I know how long and troublesome it is to get the States together. We are going to be us against a very practical matter. As a Member of Congress there is not a thing that I can do that I won't do to obtain the authorization and appropriations that we need for this magnificent project. * * And Senator Guy M. Gillette of Iowa, speaking at Sioux City, Iowa, at another in this series of meetings before which General Pick had expounded his program, said [reading]: I have never before been an enthusiast about Missouri River improvement. In the past the efforts seemed to me to be somewhat of a piecemeal approach—a nibbling at the proposition instead of taking the whole bait on a definite plan. It was sectional; it was local. Today I heard for the first time a comprehensive, definite plan for the development of the whole Missouri River watershed, not only for the purpose of assisting this area, this great local area, but all of the States comprising that vast section, |