US President Joe Biden will travel to flood-hit areas of California on Thursday, the White House said, as the country’s most populous state cleans up from a devastating and lethal series of storms, Trend reports citing Reuters.
Biden will tour storm-devastated communities, “survey recovery efforts, and assess what additional federal support is needed,” the White House said late Monday in a statement.
Nine successive storms have rolled in from the Pacific Ocean, slamming California and other western regions in a three-week period of extreme weather that has cost 19 lives.
Biden declared a major disaster in California over the weekend, allowing the federal government to expedite aid, including help with temporary housing and repairs.
Damage estimates from the series of storms already top $1 billion, making for the most costly disaster so far of 2023.
Even as scattered sunny skies were predicted for Tuesday, it won’t be much of a respite for relief workers in California hustling to clear landslides, shovel mud from roads and remove fallen trees.
Some 23,800 homes in the state remained without power late Monday, according to poweroutage.us.