President Biden toured damage from Hurricane Ida in Louisiana Friday as the state struggles to restore power and rebuild after the Category 4 storm blew ashore over last weekend.
After Air Force One touched down in New Orleans, Biden received a briefing on recovery efforts and inspected wreckage in the western suburbs of Reserve and LaPlace
The tarmac welcome party at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport included Democratic Gov. John Edwards and Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy.
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, a Democrat, also welcomed Biden.
Biden walked to the Marine One helicopter with a cheat-sheet of officials’ names and photos, including those of Cantrell and Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng sticking out of his pants pocket. He also appeared to have a script in his pocket.
During a briefing with officials on recovery progress, Biden said, “there’s a heck of a lot more work to do and that’s why we’re here today.”
“My message today is, I think what we’re all seeing — and I’m getting the same response from my Republican friends here that are in the Congress — is there’s nothing political about this. This is simply about saving lives, getting people back up and running. And we’re in this together,” he said.
“I promise we’re gonna have your back until this thing gets done. And so, I’m mainly here to listen to see what’s on your mind.”
Biden later gave handshakes and hugs while touring hurricane damage including uprooted trees and downed power lines in LaPlace, La., west of New Orleans — and used the destruction to press Congress to approve pending infrastructure bills.
“I walk through the backyards here — so many telephone lines are down, so many telephone poles are down, so many of the — of the way in which we transmit energy is lost because of the old wooden telephone pole,” Biden said.
“We know for a fact if they’re underground they are secure. It costs more money. We’ve got to not just build back to what it was with the same old poles up. We got to build back better. We got to build back more resiliently.”
Biden also called on home insurance companies to fully cover the costs of temporary housing in hotels.
The president wrapped up his visit with a flyover tour of pummeled areas including Lafitte, Grand Isle, Port Fourchon and Lafourche Parish, where Parish President Archie Chaisson said 25 percent of the homes in his community of 100,000 were gone or had catastrophic damage.
At least 14 people were killed by Ida in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, while another 48 perished across the Northeast — including 13 people in New York City and at least 25 in New Jersey –when the storm’s remnants dumped record-setting amounts of rain, triggering flash flooding.
The White House has not said whether Biden intends to visit the northeast to survey the storm damage there.
After departing Louisiana, the president flew to Philadelphia, from where he planned to make the short trip to his home in Delaware to spend the long weekend. The White House said no public events were planned for Saturday or Sunday.
With Post wires
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