President Biden visits Louisiana to survey Hurricane Ida destruction

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - President Joe Biden took in the grim reality of Hurricane Ida’s destructive force from the air on Friday.

Minutes later, he heard from local officials in LaPlace, Louisiana.

Biden said, “We’re not going to leave any community behind. Rural, city, coastal, inland. And I promise to have your backs until this thing gets done.”

President Biden’s visit to Louisiana comes a day after Louisiana Senators John Kennedy and Bill Cassidy lead a bipartisan letter to Biden asking for disaster relief funding. The legislators said Hurricane Ida caused historic damage, and mention the damage done by this storm is on top of damage done by five other named storms that hit the state in the past year.

Friday afternoon, Senator Cassidy tweeted, “Met the president at the tarmac. We spoke about the need for resiliency. We agreed putting power lines beneath the ground would have avoided all of this. The infrastructure bill has billions for grid resiliency. We also spoke about the needs of southwest Louisiana. And he said that he is committed to it and that it will happen in the upcoming annual budget. We must make sure that everyone in Louisiana and the northeast U.S. is cared for after this disaster.”

Before Biden’s visit, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas gave an update on the federal response in Louisiana.

“Our federal government said we’d be ready to respond to this massive and catastrophic storm, and we were,” Mayorkas said.

Mayorkas, whose department oversees FEMA, said people and equipment were moved to the Gulf ahead of Ida’s landfall.

He also said meals and water were available for people forced from their homes and that the government continues sending fuel in to avoid shortages.

“Just as we were there before and during the storm, we will be there long after to help the impacted individuals, families, and communities in their recovery,” Mayorkas said.

Mayorkas and FEMA continue to recommend people stay away from communities that are still flooded for their own safety.

FEMA has a resource page for those who need a wide range of information related to Hurricane Ida recovery.

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