In an exclusive interview with theGrio, President Joe Biden talks about the impacts of Hurricanes Helene and Milton and the long road ahead to recovery.
“Congress better be ready to step up to help,” President Joe Biden told theGrio in an exclusive interview in the wake of the anticipated devastation from Hurricane Milton, which is expected to make landfall in Florida by as early as Wednesday evening.
In one of his first interviews since deciding to step down from running for president, Biden spoke on a host of topics from the anticipation of Milton, as well as the rescue and clean up from the fatal devastation of Hurricane Helene, which has killed at least more than 230 people.
When asked about what he is most concerned about regarding Hurricane Milton’s potential and Helene’s rescue and recovery, Biden said, “Misinformation.” The president indicated that false information about the hurricane is hindering recovery efforts for those impacted on the ground.
“A lot of folks are out there spreading lies about what we are not doing, that things are not going well. That we are not responding,” reflected the president. “We’ve been completely responsive, and we’ve been ahead of the game.”
Biden was emphatic that “by the end of the day, there is going to be a need to invest billions of dollars to resurrect these towns.”
The president was reminded about the infrastructure work that took place in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina during the George W. Bush administration. The work to restore impacted areas in Louisiana and Mississippi began weeks after the fatal weather event and lasted as long as a decade. Biden said, “We are looking at that kind of time frame … it may be longer.”
The president hopes that the infrastructure work will be quicker.
Thousands of federal workers with agencies, including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and medical personnel are on the ground in the aftermath of Helene. Rescue and recovery crews are working feverishly to find potential survivors. Work on getting the water system back in place in Helene-impacted areas will not happen until after that work is complete.
“We are determined to stay with these people until everything is resurrected,” Biden vowed. He said flatly, “It is not a joke.”
The 46th president lamented over the personal impact of Helene.
“What people lost the most wasn’t just their homes,” noted the “consoler in chief.”
He continued, “They lost that wedding ring. They lost that picture of their mother … They lost the things that matter to them.”
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