United States President Joe Biden has pledged to continuously provide support to Florida communities affected by Hurricanes Milton and Helene as he surveyed storm-related destruction in the southeastern state. During a news conference on Sunday, Biden said people had “lost family members (and) lost all their personal belongings” after the storms pummelled Florida over the past few weeks. “Entire neighbourhoods were flooded and millions – millions – were without power,” he told reporters in St Pete Beach, a resort city on Florida’s west coast.
While Hurricane Milton was not as catastrophic as predicted, the storm lashed Florida with torrential rain and dangerous winds last week, killing at least 18 people and destroying more than 100 buildings. “Homeowners have taken a real beating in back-to-back storms and they’re heartbroken and exhausted, and their expenses are piling up,” Biden said.
Hurricane Milton hit just two weeks after Hurricane Helene, which made landfall in Florida in late September and carved a path inland as it brought dangerous flash flooding and winds to several US states, including hard-hit North Carolina.
During Biden’s tour on Sunday, street corners were filled with debris alongside felled palm trees and homes with busted pastel-painted garage doors as the smell of mouldy building materials filled the air.
According to the National Weather Service, flooding is expected to continue around Tampa Bay as well as in the Sanford area northeast of Orlando as river waters continue to rise.
During the news conference in St. Pete Beach, president Biden stated that his administration is doing everything it can to assist people in the region and added that there was so much more to be done after his assessment. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, who travelled with Biden said, about 75 percent of Florida’s power is back online, with full restoration expected by Tuesday evening. More gasoline distribution sites are also scheduled to open on Sunday, according to the state’s emergency operations centre. But five days after the storm hit, about 927,000 customers still do not have power, according to the online tracker PowerOutage.us.
Still at the news conference on Sunday, president Biden announced $612m in funding for six Department of Energy projects in hurricane-affected areas to bolster the region’s electric grid. He also reiterated his call for US lawmakers – on recess until after the November 5 presidential election – to return to Washington, DC to approve more federal support for post-hurricane relief.
St Pete Beach Mayor Adrian Petrila, speaking alongside Biden, seized the opportunity to make a call for help. “We’re concerned about the future of our town. We need continued federal resources and we need a path forward to ensure that our community and all other communities, all other cities who were devastated just like this town, can emerge stronger than ever before.” She said.
The response by the Biden administration to the hurricanes is rumored to have become a political issue just weeks before the election, which is set to pit Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris against her Republican rival, former President Donald Trump. Trump has accused Biden and Harris of not doing enough to respond to the storms while the Biden-Harris administration has hit back at Trump with allegations of Trump promoting falsehoods about the federal response.
