WASHINGTON — It was the kind of moment not often seen in the stuffy hearing rooms of Capitol Hill.

At a hearing Thursday morning to assess the impact of Hurricane Sandy, Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, began recounting the devastation for her colleagues, citing the loss of life and damage to homes and businesses.

Then, she turned to the story of Brandon and Connor Moore, two young brothers who were swept away from their mother, Glenda, as she and the children tried to escape surging, 10-foot floodwaters on Staten Island.

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“The most heartbreaking story was when I went to Staten Island and we. …” she said, stopping for several seconds to hold back tears.

Composing herself briefly, Ms. Gillibrand, continued. “We met with first responders whose job was to find two children,” she said, her voice cracking and her eyes welling with tears.

“And what happened in this case was a mother was worried because she lost power and her husband told her to find a different place to stay with the children and urged her to go to Brooklyn to see her mother,” the senator said.

“She took the children in the car,” Ms. Gillibrand continued. “But what happened in Staten Island was the storm was so severe, a 10-foot wave came across the road. Her vehicle stalled. She took the children out of the car. She tried to get them to higher land.”

“And they were taken from her,” she went on, her voice quavering. “These children were 2 years old and 4 years old. And the mother could do nothing about it because the storm was so strong.”

The hearing room, packed with senators, Congressional aides and journalists, became spellbound during Ms. Gillibrand’s sobering account to the Environment and Public Works Committee.

Ms. Gillibrand, a mother of two boys, ages 9 and 4, eventually went on with the rest of her prepared testimony. When she finished, Senator Barbara Boxer of California, the chairwoman of the committee, said she was touched and thanked Ms. Gillibrand for allowing her “emotions to come to the surface.”

For Ms. Gillibrand the story of the two boys was more than just an account she had read.

Two days after the storm ravaged Staten Island, Ms. Gillibrand traveled there, and the first thing she said she saw was a New York Police Department scuba team searching for the boys.

Then, an officer took her to the Moores’ battered and abandoned S.U.V., an image that continues to linger with her.