The president, who plans to travel to North Carolina this week, said he might need to call Congress in for a special session after it did not include additional disaster relief in its spending bill.
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Biden Tells Hurricane Survivors, ‘We Will Be There With You’
During his speech at the White House on Monday, President Joe Biden spoke about the hurricane Helene recovery efforts saying he expects to ask congress for additional funding to the affected states.
Good morning. It’s not just a catastrophic storm. It’s a historic, history-making storm. Communities are devastated. Loved ones waiting, not sure if their loved ones are OK. They can’t contact them because there’s no cellphone connections. Many more folks displaced with no idea when they’ll be able to be returned to their home, if ever, if there’s a home to return to. I’ve directed my team to provide every available resource as fast as possible to your communities to rescue, recover and to begin rebuilding. In addition to FEMA, it includes the Federal Communications Commission to help establish communications capability. The National Guard, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Defense are going to provide all the resources at its disposal to rescue and assist in clearing debris and delivering life-saving supplies. So far, that’s over 3,600 personnel deployed. That number is growing by the day. As president, I’ve seen firsthand the devastating toll that disasters like this take on families and communities. I’ve been on the ground in many disaster areas since I’ve been president. I’m here to tell every single survivor in these impacted areas that we will be there with you as long as it takes.
During his speech at the White House on Monday, President Joe Biden spoke about the hurricane Helene recovery efforts saying he expects to ask congress for additional funding to the affected states.Credit
President Biden said on Monday that he expected to ask Congress for supplemental funding to provide relief to the states devastated by Hurricane Helene, which left 100 dead and hundreds more unaccounted for.
During remarks at the White House, Mr. Biden said he might need to call Congress in for a special session to help with the response to what he called a “catastrophic” and “history-making storm.” Lawmakers left Washington last week after passing a stopgap spending bill to fund the government until Dec. 20 that did not include additional disaster relief funding.
“It’s devastating,” Mr. Biden said of the storm, which made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane and wreaked havoc across Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. “They’ve never seen anything like this before.”
The storm tore through the Gulf Coast of Florida and into Georgia before destroying entire towns across western North Carolina. Residents there have been left without electricity, internet or phone connection to find their relatives. Mr. Biden described the daunting task for federal officials hoping to locate up to 600 missing people.
Vice President Kamala Harris cut a campaign trip short to travel back to Washington for briefings with the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Monday. Mr. Biden said he expected to go to North Carolina later this week.
Former President Donald J. Trump traveled to Valdosta, Ga., a hard-hit city near the state’s border with Florida, for a briefing on the storm’s impact and to help distribute relief supplies, his campaign said. He is also scheduled to hold a news conference.
On Sunday, Mr. Trump criticized Mr. Biden for spending the weekend in Delaware and Ms. Harris for holding fund-raising events in California “when big parts of our country have been devastated by that massive hurricane.”
Mr. Biden rebutted such criticism on Monday, saying he was involved in the response from his home in Delaware.
“I was commanding,” Mr. Biden said. “I was on the phone for at least two hours yesterday and the day before as well.”
Mr. Biden added that the head of FEMA, Deanne Criswell, was on the ground in North Carolina to assess the damage. His administration had deployed 3,600 officials to assist in recovery efforts. In a sign of the scale of destruction, Mr. Biden also approved emergency requests for more than a half-dozen states, allowing FEMA to dispatch federal resources quickly.
“As president, I’ve seen firsthand the devastating toll that disasters like this take on families and communities,” Mr. Biden said in his remarks, during which he coughed and apologized for having a cold. He added, “I’m here to tell every single survivor in these impacted areas that we will be there with you as long as it takes.”
Zolan Kanno-Youngs is a White House correspondent, covering President Biden and his administration. More about Zolan Kanno-Youngs
See more on: U.S. Politics, Federal Emergency Management Agency, President Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Donald Trump
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Source: nytimes.com
