WASHINGTON — After two weeks of trying to explain a messy evacuation from Afghanistan, President Joe Biden Thursday returned to friendlier turf, detailing all the things the federal government was doing to respond to Hurricane Ida’s weekend landfall in Louisiana.
He explained how many meals the Federal Emergency Management Agency had prepositioned in the affected areas (4.3 million) as well as the number of liters of water (3 million). He boasted how much money had already gone out in relief grants to storm victims ($77 million).
He gave out the web site for people to find help (disasterassistance.gov) three times, and the toll-free number (1-800-621-FEMA) twice, and then a third time with the actual numerals, rather than the acronym.
“My message to the people of the Gulf Coast who I’m going to visit tomorrow: We are here for you, and we’re making sure the response and recovery is equitable so that those hit hardest get the resources they need and are not left behind,” he said from the stage of an auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which sits across a driveway from the West Wing.
He detailed his administration’s actions to ensure the flow of oil and gas to avoid fuel price hikes, including possibly tapping into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and an easing of rules limiting how many hours truckers can be on the road without taking a rest.
He even warned insurance companies not to deny evacuees reimbursement for hotel stays based on technicalities.
“Insurance companies, in the face of the strongest storm since 1850, say, ‘No, no, we’re not going to pay you what we owe you,’ because the fact is parishes in Louisiana like New Orleans and St. Johns issued a voluntary evacuation order at first, and may not have even had enough time to make a mandatory one as the storm moved in so fast,” he said. “No one fled this killer storm because they were looking for a vacation or a road trip or be able to stay in a hotel. They left their homes because they felt it was flee or risk death.”
“Do the right thing, and pay your policyholders what you owe them to cover the cost of temporary housing in the midst of a natural disaster,” he added.
Biden also pointed out the flooding Ida’s remnants had caused in the Northeast Wednesday night, tying it with the wildfires again rampaging across California as further evidence of climate change and the need to pass his infrastructure legislation to cope with it.
“When Congress returns this month,” Biden said, “I’m going to press for their action on my Build Back Better plan that’s going to make historic investments … in electrical infrastructure, modernizing our roads, bridges, our water systems, sewer and drainage systems, electric grids and transmission lines, and make them more resilient to these super storms and wildfires and floods that are going to happen with increasing frequency and ferocity.”
The focus on the hurricane relief, with details of the planning and the accomplishments, was a marked contrast from the past weeks, when Biden spent much of his public remarks explaining why his administration had not successfully planned for the orderly withdrawal from Afghanistan he had promised.
He took no questions from reporters after finishing his prepared remarks.