Biden on tour in Louisiana to inspect damage from Hurricane Ida | Climate News



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Dozens of people have died in five states as stormwater poured into people’s homes, engulfing cars and urban streets.

US President Joe Biden is due to visit Louisiana on Friday to get a glimpse of the destruction caused by Hurricane Ida, the monster storm that devastated the southern part of the state and left a million people without electricity.

Biden is due to meet with Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards and local officials over the hurricane, which is straining the president just after the chaotic withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan.

Hurricane Ida hit the Gulf Coast last weekend and made its way north through the eastern United States, culminating in heavy rains and widespread flooding in New York City on Wednesday. New Jersey and surrounding areas.

US President Joe Biden Biden to visit a New Orleans neighborhood devastated by flooding, downed trees and other storm damage, and deliver remarks on his administration’s response [Jonathan Ernst/Reuters]

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said on Friday the state confirmed two more deaths overnight, bringing its total to 25. He said at least six people were still missing and the death toll was would probably increase.

The fifth-strongest hurricane to hit the United States on Sunday struck southern Louisiana, cutting power to more than a million customers and water to 600,000 others, creating miserable conditions for those affected, who also experienced suffocating heat and humidity.

At least nine deaths have been reported in Louisiana, with at least 46 others killed in the northeast, Reuters news agency reported.

“My message to everyone involved is, ‘We’re all in the same boat. The nation is here to help, ”Biden said Thursday.

Biden will visit a neighborhood in LaPlace, a small community about 56 kilometers (35 miles) west of New Orleans that has been devastated by flooding, downed trees and other storm damage, and will speak out a speech on the response of his administration.

He will conduct an aerial tour of hard-hit communities, including Laffite, Grand Isle, Port Fourchon and Lafourche Parish, before meeting with local leaders in Galliano, Louisiana, the White House said.

Officials who flew over the storm damage reported astonishing scenes of small towns turned into matchsticks and large, blown ships.

Biden also urged private insurance companies to pay homeowners who left before the storm, but not necessarily under a mandatory evacuation order.

As Louisiana struggled to recover from the storm, the New York area still struggled with crippling flooding from Ida [Caitlin Ochs/Reuters]

Louisiana officials on Friday opened an investigation into the deaths of four nursing home residents who were evacuated to a warehouse before the hurricane.

Residents of the deceased nursing home were among hundreds of people from seven residential care facilities taken to the warehouse in Independence, Louisiana, where conditions have become unsanitary and dangerous, health officials said. the state. A coroner classified three of the deaths as related to the storm.

Meanwhile, the New York area was still struggling with crippling flooding from Ida.

Residents of vast swathes of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut faced waterlogged basements, power outages, damaged roofs, and calls for help. friends and relatives stranded by the floods.

“We will no longer say that this will not happen again in our lifetime,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said at a press briefing on Friday.

“It could literally happen again next week,” Hochul said, “and we have to prepare for it.”

She said 100 people had to be rescued from flooded homes and vehicles on Thursday and at least 7,800 people in the state are without power.

At least 15 have died in New York state, Hochul said, including 13 in New York City, where the deaths of people trapped in flooded basements highlighted the risk of increasingly extreme weather events. .

Biden approved a declaration of emergency in New Jersey and New York and ordered federal assistance to complement state and local response efforts, the White House said Thursday.



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