President Joe Biden got a firsthand look at storm-damaged areas of Tampa and St. Petersburg on Sunday.
Biden landed at MacDill Air Force Base, and then took a helicopter tour of the damage before landing at Albert Whitted Airport in St. Petersburg. The motorcade then wound its way to the end of Corey Avenue in St. Pete Beach.
"Early this morning, I did an aerial tour of St. Petersburg and the battered coastline," Biden said in front of a storm-battered home one block from the beach. "I flew over Tropicana Field where the Tampa Bay Rays play and the roof is almost completely off. But thank God not many people were injured."
Biden noted that the storm's last-minute turn to the south meant damage to the Pinellas County beaches was not as bad as had been forecast.
"I'm here in Florida for the second time in two weeks, and to survey the damage from another catastrophic storm, Hurricane Milton," Biden said. "Thankfully, the storm's impact was not as cataclysmic as we predicted it, you know, but for some individuals, it was cataclysmic."
He shook hands with first responders amid piles of wrecked furniture and homes and thanked them for their service.
"Also met with small-business owners here, and homeowners have taken a real beating these back-t-back storms, and they're heartbroken and exhausted, and their expenses are piling up, but I know from experience how devastating is to lose your home," Biden said.
"Several years ago, my home was struck by lightning. Didn't all burn down, but we were out of the home for seven months while it ws being repaired. The thing I was most concerned about was not just the home. It was all those things, all those pictures I saved and my daughter had drawn when she was little, all the family photographs, all the albums, all the things that really matter, folks," he continued.
"The fact is that when you lose your wedding ring and the old photos, your children, family keepsakes, things that can't be replaced, but sometimes my own experience, that's the part that hurts the most."
Biden announced more than $612 million in initiatives to make electric grids more resilient to storms like Milton. This includes $94 million for two projects in Florida: $47 million for Gainesville Regional Utilities and $47 million for Switched Source to partner with Florida Power and Light. The money will come from the Department of Energy’s Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) Program.
Pinellas County Commission Chair Kathleen Peters spoke after Biden and said she had 4 feet of water in her home during the recent storms.
She also outlined some of the county’s priority requests for federal assistance.
“I sent a letter to the state, which will then go to the White House, asking at a minimum to merge the two storm declarations. By merging the two into one disaster, it will help expedite the process and make recovery quicker,” Peters wrote.
Here's some of her priorities:
Federal Emergency Management Agency-specific requests:
- Combine both hurricanes into a single FEMA major disaster declaration to reduce the administrative burden on municipalities and residents.
- Increase the federal cost share for debris removal.
- Provide guidance for rapid storm debris removal and demolition for catastrophically damaged areas.
- Waive any FEMA requirements for Natural Resources Conservation Service approval before FEMA Public Assistance is made available for waterway debris removal activities.
FEMA Individual Assistance Requests:
- Make available the full range of FEMA Individual Assistance programs.
- Provide safe, secure, and affordable temporary sheltering assistance to vulnerable residents.
- Support the addition of two Disaster Recovery Centers to the existing one in Pinellas County.
- Approve the Permanent Housing Construction program for limited home repairs to address extraordinary damage to the available housing stock.
Additional Federal Assistance Requests:
- Beach nourishment: Waive the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ requirement for the standard perpetual easements and construct the Pinellas County Shore Protection Project at Sand Key, Treasure Island and Long Key to rehabilitate the recovery of our coast.
- Support immediate response needs to address the failure of the Lake Seminole dam to protect critical infrastructure and the environment.
- For funds already awarded to the County, expand flexibility of programs administered by agencies such as Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Treasure to be repurposed for hurricane recovery efforts.
- Lunch Operation Blue Roof to provide temporary roof coverings for homeowners and landlords impacted by the storm.
- Assign additional Federal Highway Authority inspectors to complete roadway and infrastructure assessments to accelerate the timeline for permanent repairs.
