Biden offers assistance to Florida following Hurricane Ian

• Hurricane Ian battered Florida last week.
• US President Joe Biden pledges to put the full weight on the federal government to help Florida.
• Disaster declaration extended to 60 days.

In order to completely pay the expense of debris removal and sheltering in the wake of Hurricane Ian, which slammed the state last week, demolishing homes and businesses and killing scores, US President Joe Biden has extended the major disaster declaration for Florida to 60 days.

Biden promised to use the full force of the federal government to support Florida’s recovery and rebuilding efforts during a trip to Fort Myers on Wednesday.
The people of Florida have my word and America’s commitment that we won’t abandon you; we’ll be there for you throughout the entire process, Biden said.

And maybe there won’t be any roadblocks along the way because it will take a very long time. We’ll still be here with you later after the television cameras have left. We will continue to move. We will continue to make every effort to attempt to put your life back together.

On Wednesday, the president traveled to the area with state leaders, including his political challenger Governor Ron DeSantis, to see the storm’s devastation and meet with locals.

DeSantis lauded collaboration with the federal government in his Wednesday speech alongside Biden and expressed gratitude to the Biden administration for extending the disaster declaration, which he described as being of “great value.”

He said that 97 percent of Florida’s customers now had access to energy, including 85 percent of the county’s southwest, where the hurricane made landfall.

We appreciate the teamwork, DeSantis said. “We are cutting through the red tape, and that’s from local government, state government, all the way up to the president.”

Biden, for his part, emphasized the need for cooperation in the wake of the catastrophe. “We are all involved in this. It’s America, the United States of America, right here. He emphasized the term “unified” and remarked, “It’s not something else.

Concerns about how his friendship with DeSantis, a strong critic of the White House and likely Republican presidential candidate in 2024, would affect the effort to aid Florida were allayed by Biden.

“This has nothing to do with our political differences; it’s about saving people’s lives, homes, and businesses. The US president stated last week that this issue was about that.

More than 100 individuals lost their lives as a result of the hurricane’s severe floods and devastation in the southeast of the US. The storm, which also caused havoc in the Carolinas, had a particularly heavy impact on Florida.

According to Deanne Criswell, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the federal government has roughly 4,000 employees on the ground to assist with rescue and relief operations.

In order to make sure that everyone has been found, she stated, “We still have 17 search and rescue teams in Lee County who are going door to door.”

They were able to evaluate 24,000 structures just yesterday. To ensure that no one still needs rescue, they will remain in the county until every structure has been examined and cleared.

For those whose homes were damaged by the hurricane, Criswell continued, FEMA is assisting with temporary housing. He estimated that the property loss, which is still being assessed, will be in the billions of dollars.

As we begin the reconstruction operations, we’ll keep bringing resources and assistance in, she added. And as always, “we’re going to pay close attention to making sure that we rebuild in a way that will increase the resilience of these communities.”

Regional flooding and catastrophic hurricanes have increased in Florida and the Caribbean as a result of the climate issue.

On Wednesday, Biden declared that the hurricane put an end to the debate over whether or not climate change is real and requires attention. The important thing, he continued, is to rebuild better and stronger so that you can endure the next storm. We know more is coming, so you can’t just build it back to how it was before. You have to build it back better.

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