I congratulate Joe, William, and Christopher for their impressive achievements today. Every one of the two million competitors is a winner in my eyes. By participating they have had fun and have expanded both their word power and their intellectual horizons.

We're excited for the students who have made the championship round of the fourth annual Reader's Digest National Word Power Challenge. This year's competitors have been absolutely terrific, and we congratulate all of the state champions. We are looking forward to a spirited final competition tomorrow.

The Word Power Challenge provides students with essential building blocks for effective communications -- and a great vocabulary boosts reading comprehension and improves test scores.

What we take out today takes 30 to 100 years to replace back into the aquifer. You can use 10,000 to 20,000 gallons (of water) on even a small lot. Micro-irrigation uses about a 10th of that.

The first light of day today revealed what we had feared, ... The devastation is greater than our worst fears. It's just totally overwhelming.

In the course of their work today, crews noticed some equipment that needed to be replaced. We felt it was prudent to do the work as soon as possible.