Even as Florida reels from Hurricane Ian, President Joe Biden offered his support to the people of Puerto Rico.
He said from Ponce, one of the areas of Puerto Rico hardest hit by the storm, that they are not leaving until everything is done.
The island's health department says at least 13 people were killed in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona, which dumped up to 30 inches of rain in some areas. The storm came almost five years to the day after Puerto Rico was hit by Hurricane Maria, which killed 3,000 people and caused massive power failures.
LUMA Energy reported that over 100,000 Puerto Ricans were without power. According to the government's emergency news portal, hundreds of thousands of people initially didn't have access to clean water.
Biden said that they have to make sure that they build it to last. The power grid is of particular interest to us. The amount of money Puerto Rico has received to make the power grid more resilient is going to go up.
$60 million from the bipartisan infrastructure law will be used to make improvements that will help prevent hurricanes. Levees and flood walls would be part of the projects.
The bipartisan infrastructure law allocates $2 billion to Puerto Rico. Biden signed a major disaster declaration for Puerto Rico, guaranteeing that the federal government would cover all the costs related to the storm.
The state of Florida is still recovering from the effects of Hurricane Ian. More than 80 people have died as a result of the Category 4 storm that hit Florida on Wednesday. Rescue teams will be able to get to new areas as the floodbates.
The cost of Hurricane Ian is expected to be the most expensive in Florida since Andrew in 1992, with wind and storm surge damage estimated to be between $28 billion and $47 billion. About 600,000 homes and businesses in Florida were without power as of Monday morning, down from a peak of 2.6 million on Thursday, according to Power Outage.us.
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