Remarks on Arrival at Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota.

Governor Rolvaag, Senator McCarthy, Senator Mondale, Congressmen Karth, Fraser, MacGregor, Olson, Quie, Langen, Governor Knowles, Governor Keith, Governor Milliken, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and Mr. Chancellor:

Only last week, at the request of your Governor, Karl Rolvaag, after a number of visits with Members of your delegation and your very able and beloved Vice President, Members of your Senate--Senator Mondale and Senator McCarthy--I declared a number of areas in the great State of Minnesota as disaster areas because of the great floods you are now experiencing.

Over the weekend more of your neighbor States were struck unexpectedly by disaster from the skies. Death and destruction fell upon homes and businesses in six of your neighbor States--as well as in the State of Arkansas.

I am today--together with Governor Buford Ellington, Director of the Office of Emergency Planning, also with many Members of the House and the United States Senate--meeting with the Governors and public officials of the afflicted States. Our purpose is to come and to see what the Federal Government can do to provide promptly and effectively the appropriate assistance available under the established Federal programs to assist the families and communities suffering from these natural disasters.

It was on Good Friday last year that the costliest disaster since the program of Federal disaster assistance began struck the State of Alaska. This year, on Palm Sunday, disaster struck again in this region through both tornadoes and the floods that you are now experiencing. So none of us are immune to the unknowns of nature.

Over the past year, in fact, one out of seven Americans have had their lives touched by such occurrences. When such disaster strikes, I know it is the will of the American people that assistance shall be provided to help citizens and communities undertake the task of rebuilding and restoring the life of families and cities and farms.

So I pledge to you today that along with your distinguished congressional delegation, the members of both parties, your Governor, your State officials, and your very able Vice President, we will all do everything we can. We will do it as promptly, as efficiently, as usefully as possible to render the maximum amount of aid in this crucial hour that the Federal Government can render.

As always, it is delightful to be here in your fine State. I regret that we must come under these circumstances. I hope that we may return again under happier circumstances in the future.

I want to thank you for coming out and saying hello to me. I trust that our visit here will be helpful to the end that we can get the information we need to bring all the assistance we can as quickly as we can.

Thank you very much.