Biden arrives in California to survey storm harm

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President Biden arrived in California on Thursday and joined Gov. Gavin Newsom and U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla on a helicopter tour of areas alongside the Central Coast battered by winter storms that triggered main flooding and landslides throughout the state.

The president traveled to the state after issuing an emergency declaration for California that authorizes the Federal Emergency Administration Company to coordinate catastrophe reduction and after increasing the order to incorporate the six counties of Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Merced, Sacramento and Santa Cruz.

The governor has praised the Biden administration for its assist of California, which suffered an estimated $1 billion in “intensive” harm from a string of storms that began on Dec. 26. The rains finally dropped greater than 17 inches in San Francisco and 20 inches within the Santa Cruz mountains.

It was San Francisco’s second-wettest three-week interval since “the Nice Flood of 1862.”

“We couldn't ask for something extra from the president and the complete administration,” mentioned Anthony York, a spokesman for Newsom. “The president himself referred to as the governor from Mexico a few instances to test in on the storms.”

Biden’s go to marks a break within the refined political pressure between the up-and-coming California governor and a president who has but to publicly announce his plans to run for reelection in 2024.

Newsom made a nationwide splash over the summer season for criticizing Republican governors for criminalizing abortion, utilizing immigrants as political pawns and limiting voting rights and on the similar time needled Democratic leaders for not launching a stronger response.

The governor was cautious to later make clear that his feedback weren't directed at Biden, although he continued his marketing campaign to implore his occasion to be extra aggressive politically and repeatedly took swings at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a possible GOP presidential candidate and, to a lesser extent, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas.

Mike Madrid, a Republican political advisor, described Newsom’s actions as “pure jockeying” and “reliable for a brand new technology to be not solely poking at whether or not or not Biden’s going to be operating, however actually positioning if he weren’t going to be.” Although Biden has not made any official bulletins, he's anticipated to run once more. Newsom has repeatedly denied having any curiosity in operating for president in 2024.

Newsom’s frustration together with his personal occasion resonated with rank-and-file Democrats, a lot of whom had been indignant over the Supreme Courtroom Determination to overturn the authorized proper to abortion and the historic Roe vs. Wade determination and had been bored with the feeble response to assaults by the GOP.

“The extra he units himself because the tip of the spear, the extra it helps his positioning as an inheritor obvious, or as anyone who’s going be viable nationally,” Madrid mentioned. “I believe what he’s doing tactically is correct and helps Biden as a result of what it does is it units a distinction within the race with the acute components of the Republican Social gathering.”

Biden has stepped up his personal warnings to the nation that American democracy stays in peril, singling out former President Trump and his supporters.

The president positioned Newsom in a troublesome place in September when he supplied an uncommon present of assist for a invoice permitted by the California Legislature to make it simpler for farmworkers to prepare. The invoice, referred to as the California’s Agricultural Labor Relations Voting Selection Act, was on Newsom’s desk and the governor had been grappling with whether or not to signal the laws or not. His workplace had beforehand mentioned that he didn’t assist the invoice language because the proposal moved by way of the Legislature.

Newsom finally signed the invoice into legislation. Madrid referred to as the president’s determination to assist the farmworker invoice a “pop on the snout” from Biden.

Months later Newsom traveled to the Mexican border days after Biden got here underneath hearth from the GOP for visiting Arizona and never stopping on the border.

Newsom has by no means been afraid of pushing his occasion the place he thinks it must go. Madrid pointed to Newsom’s assist for homosexual marriage in 2004 and the ensuing blame he acquired for John Kerry’s presidential loss, for instance.

Biden touched down mid-day at Moffett Federal Airfield in Mountain View shortly earlier than midday with plans to survey the harm by helicopter and land at Watsonville Municipal Airport shortly earlier than 1 p.m.

The president intends to fulfill with enterprise house owners and native residents impacted by the storms and flooding in Capitola and converse with first responders and state and native officers about restoration efforts in Aptos. Biden is predicted to ship remarks earlier than returning to the East Coast Thursday night.

Alongside the California coast, cities akin to Santa Cruz, Capitola and Fort Bragg had been battered by storm surge, rain and wind. Iconic wharfs, eating places, sidewalks and roads collapsed underneath towering surf, whereas streets, parks, properties and retailers had been flooded by highly effective waves.

In the meantime, rivers in Salinas, Merced and Sacramento counties swelled and spilled over their banks — turning farmland, entire metropolis blocks and neighborhoods into lakes upon which first responders required jet-skis, boats, kayaks and canoes to evacuate stranded Californians.

And within the coastal mountains, from the Bay Space south to Ventura, drought-stressed timber fell throughout roads and homes — isolating total neighborhoods — whereas particles flows, mudslides and sinkholes blocked visitors and spurred dozens of evacuations. Greater than 500 landslides had been recorded throughout California in the previous few weeks.

Vice President Kamala Harris introduced her plans to observe Biden’s go to together with her personal journey to Southern California on Friday to “concentrate on constructing resilience to floods and droughts.”


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