924 
Dr. Trisvus. I really cannot answer that question. I wish I could. I 
don’t know the answer to that. 
Mr. Downrne. Your statement says, “It may not be the best vehicle 
for the Nation’s effort in the marine environment.” 
Let me put it this way. Will we have somebody tell us what the posi- 
tion of the Department of Commerce is, or will we just go on willy- 
nilly ? 
DE Trisus. Well, if you are asking me whether you are going to 
get a departmental position which is separate from the administration 
position, I guess the answer to that is that that does not seem to be 
the way we ought to do it, and I don’t think we will. 
I think it is proper for us to defer to the President in this matter, as 
to what his wishes are. He and his associates are actively studying and 
I look forward to hearing the result. 
Mr. Downtne. I imagine that the President will ask for recom- 
mendations from you. ; 
Don’t you think so? 
Dr. Trreus. Yes. He will ask for comments from us. We have com- 
mented on the various alternatives. 
Mr. Downtne. I sort of hoped that we would have some statement 
from the Department of Commerce. 
Dr. White, while I have you here, in Camille was there any way of 
predicting that Camille would dump 31 inches of water in 5 hours over 
the northeastern section of Virginia ? 
Dr. Wurire. Our present knowledge of the ways in which precipita- 
tion occurs and the ways in which these storms work would never have 
allowed us to predict an amount of water of the kind which was 
dumped by Camille on Virginia in a very, very small area. Some of 
the readings there indicated that amounts of 27 inches fell ina 12-hour 
period, far exceeding anything on the record in that area. 
There have been one or two occasions in the record in other parts of 
the country and other parts of the world with the intensity of down- 
pour exceeding that, but this was most, most unusual and anomalous, 
and my personal assessment is that the status of our science is such 
that we could never have predicted that amount of precipitation. 
Mr. Downtne. Thank you, Dr. White. 
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 
Mr. Lennon. Thank you. 
The gentleman from Oregon, Mr. Dellenback. 
Mr. Detienpack. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. 
T join the other members of the subcommittee in welcoming you, Mr. 
Secretary and Dr. White. 
T have listened carefully to the testimony that each of you has given, 
and, Dr. Tribus; I have read carefully also the testimony that you 
have given, and I am not really sure that I understand the nature of 
your expressed concern about NOAA, because after commenting on 
the background recommendations and what is being done in Commerce, 
you end up making a comment on the Commission’s report in saying: 
I have serious doubts as to whether the Commission’s recommendation to es- 
tablish NOAA is, in fact, the best organizational method for marshalling our 
national efforts in the oceans. 
Then you devote one paragraph at the bottom of page 12 of your 
