An aerial drone view of the scene the place a downtown high-rise was smashed by a fallen crane from Hurricane Milton at 490 1st Avenue South, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024 in St. Petersburg, Fla. The constructing broken by Hurricane Milton is house to the Tampa Bay Instances, a legislation agency, a protection contractor and extra. (Dirk Shadd/Tampa Bay Instances by way of AP)
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Sunday will survey the devastation inflicted on Florida’s Gulf Coast by Hurricane Milton as he urges Congress to approve extra emergency catastrophe funding. Vice President Kamala Harris will spend a second day in North Carolina, hard-hit by Hurricane Helene, to attend a Black church and maintain a marketing campaign rally.
Biden’s go to to the St. Petersburg space gives him one other probability to press Home Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., for congressional approval of extra help cash earlier than the Nov. 5 election. Johnson has mentioned the problem might be handled after then.
“I feel Speaker Johnson goes to get the message that he’s received to step up, notably for small companies,” Biden instructed reporters as he and Harris met with aides on Friday to debate the federal response to Hurricanes Milton and Helene. Biden and Johnson have but to debate the matter immediately.
In Florida, Biden was set to announce $612 million for six Division of Vitality initiatives in areas affected by the hurricanes to enhance the resilience of the area’s electrical grid, the White Home mentioned. The funding consists of $94 million for 2 initiatives in Florida: $47 million for Gainesville Regional Utilities and $47 million for Switched Supply to associate with Florida Energy and Gentle.
Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, visited Raleigh on Saturday to satisfy with Black elected and non secular leaders and assist volunteers package deal private care gadgets for supply to victims of Helene within the western a part of the state.
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She was spending Sunday in Greenville, with plans to talk throughout a church service as a part of her marketing campaign’s “Souls to the Polls” effort to assist end up Black churchgoers earlier than Election Day. She was additionally scheduled to carry a rally to speak about her financial plans and spotlight Thursday’s begin of early voting within the state, her marketing campaign mentioned.
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Harris and her working mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will spend the approaching week campaigning within the aggressive states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina, based on a Harris marketing campaign official who was not approved to publicly focus on particulars not but made public and spoke on situation of anonymity.
With lower than 4 weeks to go earlier than Election Day, the hurricanes have added one other dimension to the carefully contested presidential race.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has mentioned the Biden administration’s storm response had been missing, notably in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene. Biden and Harris have hammered Trump for selling falsehoods in regards to the federal response.
Trump made a collection of false claims after Helene struck in late September, together with incorrectly saying that the federal authorities is deliberately withholding help to Republican catastrophe victims. He additionally falsely claimed the Federal Emergency Administration Company had run out of cash as a result of all of it had gone to applications for immigrants within the nation illegally.
Biden mentioned Trump was “not singularly” in charge for the unfold of false claims in latest weeks however that he has the “largest mouth.”
The president is urgent for swift motion by Congress to verify the Small Enterprise Administration and FEMA have the cash they should get via hurricane season, which ends Nov. 30 within the Atlantic. He mentioned Friday that Milton alone had brought on an estimated $50 billion in damages.
Homeland Safety Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas mentioned final week that FEMA will have the ability to meet “rapid wants” attributable to the 2 storms. However he warned within the aftermath of Helene that the company doesn’t have sufficient funding to make it via the hurricane season.
However Johnson has pushed again, saying the businesses manage to pay for in the meanwhile and that lawmakers will tackle the funding difficulty in the course of the lame-duck session after the election.
Additionally percolating within the background are tensions between Harris and Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla. As Helene barreled towards Florida, the 2 traded accusations that the opposite was making an attempt to politicize the federal storm response.
Harris’ workplace final week steered that DeSantis was dodging her telephone calls. DeSantis responded that he was unaware she had referred to as and he grumbled that she hadn’t been concerned within the federal authorities’s response earlier than she grew to become the Democratic nominee.
Biden, for his half, mentioned he hoped to see DeSantis on Sunday, if the governor’s schedule permitted.
“He’s been very cooperative,” Biden mentioned about DeSantis. He added, “We received on very, very nicely.”
DeSantis mentioned Saturday that he had no particulars in regards to the president’s go to.
Biden was scheduled to survey harm throughout an aerial tour between Tampa and St. Pete Seaside, the place he might be briefed on the storm by federal, state and native officers. He additionally will residents and first responders.
Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida as a Class 3 storm on Wednesday night. A minimum of 10 folks had been killed and a whole lot of 1000’s of residents stay with out energy.
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Officers say the toll might have been worse if not for widespread evacuations. The still-fresh devastation wrought by Helene simply two weeks earlier in all probability helped compel many individuals to flee.
