On Thursday, President Joe Biden lauded first responders and cautioned gas companies against using the destruction as an excuse to hike rates as he warned Florida it might be facing the worst storm in its history.
A day earlier, Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida, flooding both of its coastlines, cutting out electricity, and killing at least one person.
Biden said that may just be the beginning.
He made the comment while paying a visit to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. “This might be the worst storm in Florida history,” he remarked.
We are getting early reports of what may be a significant loss of life, although the exact numbers are yet unknown.
He continued by saying that he had plans to go to Puerto Rico, which had just been ravaged by Hurricane Fiona.
With Florida Governor Ron DeSantis positioning himself as a populist Republican with aspirations to the White House, the situation has been regarded as a test of Biden’s relationship with DeSantis.
When a reporter inquired about how their phone contact on Thursday morning went, Biden yelled at the reporter, calling the inquiry “completely useless.”
But I’ll respond, he said. Okay. Very good; fine.
He gave me a compliment.
“He congratulated me for our quick reaction,” I said.
He expressed his gratitude to me, and said he was delighted with how things were going.
Prior to that, Biden deemed the situation a “serious catastrophe,” releasing billions in aid.
It could also involve low-cost loans to help cover uninsured property, support with temporary housing and house repairs, and other initiatives.
CoreLogic, a company that provides real estate consulting services, estimates that the cost of repairing and rebuilding properties damaged by the hurricane might reach $260 billion.