WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden headed to California Thursday to evaluate restoration efforts within the storm-battered state.
Biden is assembly with California Gov. Gavin Newsom and different officers and focus on whether or not extra federal assist is required.
“I am on my strategy to Santa Clara, California to fulfill with enterprise house owners and residents impacted by storm devastation, survey harm, and reaffirm our dedication to help California as they get well,” Biden tweeted Thursday.
California has seen properties flooded, roofs torn off homes, levees breached, vehicles submerged and bushes uprooted in current weeks.
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, who’s journey with Biden after visiting California herself final weekend, stated the state was hit with unprecedented storms and hurricane-strength winds.
“They felt prefer it was being hit by hurricane after hurricane,” Criswell informed reporters throughout Thursday’s flight to California.
Video:Calif. climate calms however harm is in depth
The most recent
- California has been battered by atmospheric river storms since late December, leading to flooding, mudslides and landslides. Not less than 21 folks have died.
- Biden declared an emergency exists in California final week, making federal funding accessible to a number of counties. Extra counties are anticipated to be included as harm evaluation continues.
- Most counties had a minimum of some harm from the staggering quantity of rain and snow California acquired.
- 1000’s of properties had been critically broken and lots of roads stay closed.
- The price of the harm is count on to exceed $1 billion.
- In early January, Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency all through California to help the continuing response.
What’s about to occur
Biden is visiting Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties the place storms have induced extreme floods and landslides. He is accompanied by Criswell, head of the Federal Emergency Administration Company. Greater than 500 workers from FEMA and different federal businesses have been deployed to California to help response and restoration operations.
Journey is Biden’s third to California as president
Biden final visited the nation’s largest Democratic state in October as a part of a West Coast swing to lift cash and rally Democrats earlier than the 2022 elections.
Biden additionally touted a bipartisan infrastructure bundle in Los Angeles and ordered a rooster quesadilla at a taco stand.
In his one different journey to California as president, Biden campaigned for Newsom forward of the governor’s 2021 recall election.
Dig deeper: Extra protection of flooding
Contributing: The Related Press