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| Photo Credit: AP. |
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Monday will survey damage from Hurricane Fiona in Puerto Rico, where tens of thousands of people are still without power two weeks after the storm hit.
The Category
1 hurricane knocked out electrical power to the U.S. territory of 3.2 million
people, 44% of whom live below the poverty line.
Power has
been restored to about 90% of the island’s 1.47 million customers, but more
than 137,000 others, mostly in the hardest hit areas of Puerto Rico’s southern
and western regions, continue to struggle in the dark. Another 66,000 customers
are without water.
Biden has
pledged that the U.S. government will not abandon Puerto Rico as it starts to
rebuild again, five years after the more powerful Hurricane Maria devastated
the island in 2017.
During his
visit, Biden planned to announce the administration will provide $60 million
through last year’s bipartisan infrastructure law to help Puerto Rico shore up
levees, strengthen flood walls and create a new flood warning system so the
island will be better prepared for future storms, the White House said.
“We see what
you’re going through, and we’re with you,” Biden told Puerto Ricans and
Floridians in a message Sunday on his official Twitter account.
Florida is
cleaning up after Hurricane Ian churned across that state last week, killing
more than 60 people, decimating some coastal communities and flooding others.
Biden plans to visit Florida on Wednesday to survey damage.
The
president, accompanied by first lady Jill Biden and Deanne Criswell, the
Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator, was to touch down Monday in
Ponce, Puerto Rico, a city on the southern coast. Most of the storm damage is
in southern Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico
Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said he would update Biden on recovery efforts.
“We will
make sure to keep working together to ensure the continuity of a reconstruction
already underway,” the governor tweeted on Sunday.
Fiona caused
catastrophic flooding, tore apart roads and bridges, and unleashed more than
100 landslides when it hit Puerto Rico on Sept. 18. At least two people died
after being swept away by floods, and several others were killed in accidents
related to the use of candles or generator during the island-wide power outage.
Government
officials have estimated some $3 billion in damages, but warn that costs could
rise significantly as evaluations continue.
Some people
in Puerto Rico wondered whether Biden’s visit would change anything as they
recalled how President Donald Trump visited after Hurricane Maria hit as a more
powerful Category 4 storm in 2017, and tossed rolls of paper towels into a crowd
in a display that riled many.
Manuel Veguilla,
a 63-year-old retired mechanic who lives in a remote community in the hard-hit
northern mountain town of Caguas, said he didn’t expect his life to improve in
the aftermath of Fiona, which cut off his neighborhood from any help for a
week.
“They always
offer the lollipop to the kids,” he said, referring to Biden’s visit. “But in
the end, the outcome is always the same. The aid goes to those who have the
most.”
Criswell,
who discussed the aftermath of Fiona and Ian on four Sunday TV news programs,
echoed Biden’s promise to Fiona’s victims.
“We have not
left Puerto Rico,” she said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Criswell
said on ABC’s “This Week” that FEMA personnel were sent to the island before
the storm hit and that “they’re going to stay with the people of Puerto Rico”
through the recovery efforts.
Biden
recently told Pierluisi that he authorized 100% federal funding for a month for
debris removal, search and rescue efforts, power and water restoration, shelter
and food.
The lack of
electrical power on the island led to the temporary closure of businesses,
including gas stations and grocery stores, as fuel supplies dwindled amid heavy
generator use. As a result, many cheered the Biden administration’s decision to
temporarily waive a federal law so that a British Petroleum ship could deliver
300,000 barrels of diesel.
Many also
have begun demanding that Puerto Rico be fully exempted from the law, known as
the Jones Act, that requires that all goods transported to Puerto Rico be
aboard a ship built in the U.S., owned and crewed by U.S. citizens and flying
the U.S. flag. This drives up costs for an island that already imports 85% of
its food.
Sen. Marco
Rubio, R-Fla., also said Puerto Ricans would not be forgotten.
Rubio said
the island appeared to be “in better position to respond this time around” due
to the prepositioning of personnel and supplies before the storm hit and
because part of Puerto Rico’s electrical grid had been rebuilt after Hurricane
Maria.
“We will do
everything we can, we always have, to support Puerto Rico now in the recovery
after this, yet another devastating storm,” Rubio said on CNN’s “State of the
Union.”
Coto
reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico.