Biden to highlight infrastructure plan as he tours Hurricane Ida damage in NY, NJ
President Joe Biden is traveling to New York and New Jersey on Tuesday to tour areas devastated by the catastrophic effects of Hurricane Ida, using the trip to highlight climate change and underscore the importance of passing his infrastructure bill in order to help communities better prepare for extreme weather events.
The president will first visit Manville, N.J., and later survey damage in the New York City borough of Queens. The visit is Biden’s second such trip after Ida made landfall in Louisiana and later flooded the Northeast with torrential rainfall, leaving more than 60 people dead, including 27 in New Jersey and 13 people in New York City.
The storm drowned dozens of people in their cars. Others were swept away by floodwaters, killed under a falling tree, or submerged by rising water in basement apartments.
“I’m hoping to be able to see the things we are going to be able to fix permanently with the bill that we have in for infrastructure,” Biden told reporters before leaving the White House.
In Louisiana:Week after Hurricane Ida’s landfall, hundreds of thousands still without power
Climate change and Biden’s domestic agenda
Biden’s visit comes as he’s pushing for congressional approval of a $1 trillion infrastructure plan and $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation plan that includes several items aimed at tackling climate change.
Fierce Hurricane Larry churning across the Atlantic, could be even stronger than Ida. East Coast could face ‘life-threatening’ surf.
Biden approved major disaster declarations for six New Jersey counties and five New York counties that suffered catastrophic flooding from the remnants of Ida.
Last week Biden traveled to Louisiana, where he met with Gov. John Bel Edwards and other local officials to tour a neighborhood inundated by storm surge flooding. Hurricane Ida left at least 13 people dead and thousands of residents without power more than a week after it first made landfall in Louisiana.
“Hurricane Ida is another reminder that we need to be prepared for the next hurricane and superstorms that are going to come, and they’re going to come more frequently and more ferociously,” Biden said Friday after touring a neighborhood.
As of now, Ida is the deadliest hurricane the U.S. has seen in four years and the deadliest storm in the Northeast since 2012’s catastrophic Superstorm Sandy, which killed more than 100 people.
Contributing: Joey Garrison, Grace Hauck and Christine Fernando, USA TODAY