President Joe Biden and first woman Jill Biden will journey to devastated areas this week as america reels from the dying, harmful floods and destruction left in Hurricane Ian’s wake.
The White Home introduced late Saturday that the Bidens will go to Puerto Rico on Monday and Florida on Wednesday.
No less than 73 storm-related deaths have been confirmed in Florida since Hurricane Ian slammed into the state final week with 150 mph winds, based on a tally by state officers and an NBC Information depend.
Since downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone, the Nationwide Hurricane Heart mentioned in an advisory late Saturday that the storm was dissipating throughout southern Virginia. Nonetheless, it left flooding and energy outages throughout the Carolinas, too, because the extent of the injury got here into view. No less than 4 folks have additionally died in North Carolina. Gov. Roy Cooper introduced Saturday.
With rescue efforts ongoing and the floodwater receding in locations affected by wrecked properties, native officers warned the extent of the dying and destruction left by Ian might solely simply be coming into view.
Puerto Rico remains to be grappling with the fallout from Hurricane Fiona, which has resulted in 25 fatalities because it hit the U.S. territory final month, based on the island’s well being division.
No additional particulars of the journey have been introduced, however Biden talked about his concern for the areas pummeled by the storms at a Congressional Black Caucus awards dinner on Saturday night time.
“Our hearts … are heavy, the devastating hurricanes, storms in Puerto Rico, Florida, and South Carolina. And we owe Puerto Rico a hell of much more than they’ve already gotten,” Biden mentioned.
Virtually one million prospects have been nonetheless disadvantaged of electrical energy, information from PowerOutage.us confirmed Sunday morning, with the Federal Emergency Administration Company saying some turbines bought for medical wants by residents will likely be coated by tax {dollars}.
Residents who misplaced energy after the storm struck in areas coated by Biden’s main catastrophe declaration will likely be eligible for reimbursement, which for now embrace solely Florida counties of Charlotte, Collier, DeSoto, Hardee, Hillsborough, Lee, Manatee, Pinellas, and Sarasota. Further areas may very well be designated after injury evaluation, mentioned the White Home.
Throughout the Straits of Florida, new protests flared in Cuba on Saturday over the continuing blackouts in Havana as crews scrambled to revive electrical energy. Ian had knocked out energy to the entire nation of 11 million folks when it ploughed via western Cuba earlier this week.
In the meantime, rescuers continued to comb Florida, the place Ian made landfall final Wednesday as a Class 4 hurricane, one of many strongest to ever hit the nation.
It introduced catastrophic flooding.
No less than 1,100 rescues had been made in Florida for the reason that storm struck, Gov. Ron DeSantis advised a information convention Saturday.
“There’s been an amazing outpouring of help and I’ve seen a variety of resilience on this group of those that wish to decide themselves up and so they wish to get their communities again on their toes,” DeSantis advised reporters. “We’ll be right here and we’ll be serving to each step of the way in which.”
Energy Outages additionally continued in Puerto Rico the place over 140,000 residents have been stranded with none electrical energy and nearly 40,000 within the Carolinas, based on PowerOutage.us.
Hurricane Fiona had struck the island on Sep. 16, thrashing energy grids and flooding cities, leaving residents with collapsed bridges. Inside days nearly all of Puerto Rico was left with out energy. It was the second storm in 5 years and the island nonetheless hadn’t absolutely recovered from Hurricane Maria in 2017.
“To the folks of Puerto Rico, we’re not gone away; I’m dedicated to you and the restoration of the island,” Biden had mentioned after a FEMA briefing on Thursday. “We’ll stand by you for nonetheless lengthy it takes to get it executed,” he mentioned.
Phil McCausland, Leila Sackur and Corky Siemaszko contributed.
