Remarks Upon Arrival in Cincinnati After Aerial Inspection of the Ohio River Basin Flood.

Governors, members of the press, ladies and gentlemen:

We have just completed an aerial tour of the Ohio River Basin and we have seen firsthand the ravages of the worst flood in this area in more than 20 years.

I know that all Americans will join me in expressing our sympathy to those who have suffered.

Some have lost their relatives and friends and they deserve our deepest condolences.

Thousands have been left homeless--they deserve our immediate help.

To provide that help, I have brought with me the officials who can expedite the programs of assistance and rehabilitation. They include the Director of the Office of Emergency Planning, Mr. Edward McDermott; the Secretary of Agriculture, Mr. Orville Freeman; Gen. Alfred Gruenther, President of the American Red Cross; Mr. Eugene Foley, the Administrator of the Small Business Administration; Mr. Rex Whitton, the Administrator of the Bureau of Public Roads, and Lt. Gen. Walter K. Wilson, Jr., the Chief of Engineers of the Department of the United States Army.

We have conferred with Governor Barron of West Virginia, Governor Rhodes of Ohio, Governor Breathitt of Kentucky, Governor Welsh of Indiana, Governor Kerner of Illinois, Governor Dalton of Missouri, and a representative of Governor Scranton of Pennsylvania. I have assured them that our Government is prepared to do its full share in helping the people of each State.

I have already instructed the Corps of Engineers to accelerate action on flood control projects in this basin.

The Red Cross and other agencies are already bringing food and clothing to thousands of people that were left homeless and hungry. I am informed that a little less than fifteen thousand were fed last night in that category.

Other resources will be made available as they are requested by the State Governors.

Funds and equipment and personnel for the repair and restoration of roads and bridges and other public property are available.

Loans for farmers and businessmen whose property has been damaged or destroyed are available.

Grain for livestock is available.

My decision to come here today to tour this area, to meet with your Governors, to talk to your people, to see the damages firsthand myself will, I hope, expedite assistance that is needed.

No time will be lost. Working with your Governors and with your State governments, we will do everything possible to ease the hardship and the trial which the swollen flood waters have brought to the people of the Ohio River Basin.

We are sorry that the investments that have been made in controlling and containing floods are not complete. The Chief of the Army Engineers tells me that we have invested in this river basin already approximately three-quarters of a billion dollars, and that that investment has already saved an investment of more than a billion dollars. So, for every $3 that we have invested, we have saved $4.

In the President's budget that is now being considered in the Congress, a reduced budget, a budget of a little less than a billion dollars under last year's budget, we have the largest single recommendation in that flood control river basin budget for the Ohio River Basin--some $225 million.

So, we are going to try to accelerate action in that area so that what has been destroyed today can be saved and preserved tomorrow.

We think that there is nothing we can do about the floods that have already occurred, but there is much that must be done to prevent the damage that floods in the future will cause.

So this has been an experience for us--a sad experience--but one from which we can learn and one from which we will profit.

Now I want to call on Governor Rhodes and Governor Kerner to speak for the Governors who are here today and give any messages that they may care to give.