Biden tours damage and meets with families left homeless by Colorado wildfire
Biden, speaking at a recreation center in Louisville, Colorado, said the damage was hard to see up close.
“Jill and I, and my team, have surveyed the damage of the Marshall Fire and it’s as devastating as it looks on television, as devastating as many of the environmental crises as I’ve seen in the last year,” Biden said.
After spending more than an hour meeting with families affected by the fire and hearing their stories, Biden said wildfires are among the natural disasters that affect him the most.
“There’s nothing so frightening, in my view, as a fire,” Biden said.
During his remarks, Biden recounted heroic stories of firefighters and ordinary citizens — like a man who made sure enough water was flowing in a local water treatment plant in order to allow fire crews to fight the blaze — and urged the community to stick together and lean on each other in its wake.
Biden has made federal funding available to assist state and local recovery efforts, which can also include grants for temporary housing and home repairs as well as low-cost loans to covered uninsured losses. The President spoke with Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, last Friday about providing federal support.
Biden said Friday that the federal government will do all it can to help the area.
“It’s amazing, amazing what people do in crisis. My message to them and everyone impacted by this is, you know, not only are you helping each other but we’re here with you,” Biden said. “We’re not going to go away. The federal government is not going to go away.”
Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell told Fintech Zoom over the weekend that federal teams were focused on working with state and local officials to clear debris and developing a housing strategy for immediate as well as long-term needs.
Biden has repeatedly spoken out about how the climate crisis is driving an increased threat from wildfires and is responsible for the rise in extreme weather events in recent years.
In the fall, Biden traveled to Idaho and California to survey wildfire damage. The President said recent extreme weather events are costing America billions of dollars each year and made the case for making large-scale investments to make the nation’s infrastructure more resilient to these threats.
The President has announced new federal response plans that include paying firefighters more, extending seasonal hiring, adding “surge capacity” by training and equipping additional personnel and bolstering fire detection resources. He said the administration would tap into satellite and emerging technologies to rapidly detect new fires.
Biden tours damage and meets with families left homeless by Colorado wildfire
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