Florida | Biden reviews damage from Hurricane Milton

(St. Pete Beach) President Joe Biden saw first-hand the devastation caused by the hurricane Milton on Florida’s Gulf Coast as he urges Congress to approve additional emergency disaster funding. Vice President Kamala Harris spent a second day in hurricane-hit North Carolina Heleneto pray with black worshipers and hold a campaign rally.

Mr. Biden arrived in Tampa and flew by helicopter to St. Pete Beach, surveying the damage left by Miltonincluding the roof of Tropicana Field which was torn off by the storm’s powerful winds. Later, as the presidential motorcade drove down the highway, piles of debris, tattered billboards, toppled fences, fallen trees and closed gas stations were seen. He passed through a neighborhood where almost every house had suffered water damage and piles of personal items littered the sidewalk.

The visit gave President Biden another chance to pressure House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, for congressional approval of additional financial aid before the Nov. 5 election. Mr. Johnson said on Sunday that lawmakers would address the issue after the election because of the time needed to come up with an estimate. He said on CBS Face the Nation that his “estimate” is that US$100 billion will be needed.

“We will provide the additional resources,” Mike Johnson said.

In Florida, Joe Biden was expected to announce $612 million for six Energy Department projects in hurricane-hit areas to improve the resiliency of the region’s power grid, the White House said. The funding includes $94 million for two projects in Florida: $47 million for Gainesville Regional Utilities and $47 million for Switched Source in partnership with Florida Power and Light.

M^me Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, traveled to Raleigh on Saturday to meet with black elected officials and faith leaders and help volunteers package personal care items to deliver to victims ofHelene in the western part of the state.

She spent Sunday in Greenville, intending to speak at a church service as part of her campaign’s “Souls to the Polls” effort to help black churchgoers get to the polls before daylight of the ballot. She was also expected to hold a rally to talk about her economic plans and mark the start of early voting in the state on Thursday, her campaign said.

M^me Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will spend the coming week campaigning in the competitive states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina, according to a Ms. campaign official.^me Harris, who was not authorized to publicly discuss details not yet made public and spoke on condition of anonymity.

With less than four weeks until Election Day, hurricanes have added another dimension to the hotly contested presidential race.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said the Biden administration’s response to the storms had been insufficient, particularly in post-hurricane North Carolina Helene. Mr. Biden and Mr.^me Harris blasted Mr. Trump for promoting falsehoods about the federal response.

Donald Trump made a series of false statements after the passage ofHelene in late September, including falsely claiming that the federal government was intentionally withholding aid to Republican victims of the disaster. He also falsely claimed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was out of money because all that money had gone to programs for illegal immigrants in the country.

Joe Biden said Donald Trump was “not the only one” responsible for spreading false claims in recent weeks, but that he had the “biggest mouth.”

Tensions in Congress

The president is pushing for Congress to act quickly to ensure the Small Business Administration and FEMA have the money they need to get through the hurricane season, which ends Nov. 30 in Atlantic. He said Friday that Milton alone had caused approximately US$50 billion in damage.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said last week that FEMA would be able to respond to “immediate needs” caused by the two storms. But he warned afterwards Helene that the agency did not have enough funds to get through the hurricane season.

But Mr. Johnson fought back, saying agencies have enough money for now and that lawmakers will address the funding issue during the end-of-term session following the election.

The tensions between M^me Also present in the background are Harris and Gov. Ron DeSantis, Republican of Florida. WhileHelene headed toward Florida, they accused each other of trying to politicize the federal response to the storm.

M’s office^me Harris suggested last week that Mr. DeSantis was dodging her phone calls. Ron DeSantis responded that he was not aware she had called and grumbled that she had not been involved in the federal government’s response before becoming the Democratic nominee.

Joe Biden said he hoped to see Mr. DeSantis on Sunday, if the governor’s schedule permitted. Ron DeSantis was not among the officials who greeted Joe Biden in Tampa or participated in his briefing in St. Pete Beach.

The hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida as a Category 3 storm Wednesday evening. At least 10 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands of residents remain without power.

The authorities believe that the toll could have been higher without the mass evacuations. The still recent devastation caused by Helene two weeks earlier likely helped force many people to flee.