Washington: US President Joe Biden visited New Orleans on Friday to underscore his administration’s support for people in the region in the wake of Hurricane Ida.
“We’re in this together, and so we’re not going to leave any community behind – rural, city, coastal, inland. And I promise we’re going to have your backs until this gets done,” Biden said at an emergency operations centre in La Place, Louisiana, according to a pool report.
“And my message today is – I think what we’re all seeing, and I’m getting the same response from my Republican friends – Republican friends here that are in the Congress: There’s nothing political about this. It’s just simply about saving lives and getting people back up and running,” Biden asserted.
At least 13 people died as a result of the hurricane in Louisiana and the neighbouring state of Mississippi. According to the White House, 800,000 households in the region still have no electricity.
A devastating storm in the north-eastern United States in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida killed at least 48 people, most of them in New York City and in the neighbouring state of New Jersey.
President Joe Biden will travel to Manville, New Jersey, and the Queens borough of New York City on Tuesday to assess damage from Hurricane Ida, the White House said.
The same storm continued northward through the eastern United States, dumping torrential rains and causing flooding in New York and New Jersey on Wednesday night, killing nearly 50 people. — Agencies
