President Joe Biden offered hugs and reassurances on Friday when he toured LaPlace, Louisiana, walking among downed trees, debris and power lines as he saw first hand the damage from Hurricane Ida.

Biden offered comfort and snapped selfies as he walked among the wreckage.

I know you're hurting,' he said after meeting with families and visiting with a group that gathered on the corner of a street blocked off by security.

He stood in front of a one story home where a huge tree toppled on top of the roof, crushing the family mini van.

The street featured rows of houses with blue tarps on their roofs. Several huge trees were uprooted. Some had mattresses in their yards - after interior flooding that can ruin belongings.

Days after Hurricane Ida walloped the Louisiana coast and followed a path of destruction through the state, Biden came here to meet with local officials, tour the damage and take in aerial views as he flew over the area.

During his tour, Biden, wearing a face mask and baseball cap, became comforter-in-chief.

He placed a reassuring on the arm of one woman and even leaned on a bent stop sign during a neighborhood conversation, where he vowed to help residents rebuild, arguing his 'Build Back Better' agenda and his $3.5 trillion budget plan would help make it possible.

In a speech to residents, Biden rattled off the list of things the federal government was doing, including bringing in more generators to help those with power, opening up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and working with cell phone companies to get service restored.

'We're working around the clock, with the governor and the elected officials here until we can meet every need you all,' he said.


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9956265/Biden-tours-Hurricane-Ide-devastation-Louisiana.html

Biden also blasted insurance companies for denying living assistance coverage for those who didn't fall under the mandatory evacuation order.

'Insurance companies are saying no, no, no, we won't pay you what we owe. Well we're putting as much pressure as we can,' the president said.

'No one fled this killer storm because they were looking for a vacation or a road trip,' he noted.

He argued even though evacuation orders were voluntary, people felt safer leaving.

'So, folks, they left their home because ... they felt that they had to flee the risk of death. There's nothing voluntary about that. And so I'm calling on private insurance companies - don't hide behind the fine print and technicality; pay what you owe your customers; cover temporary housing costs,' he said.

Later, Biden took an aerial tour of some of the hardest hit areas. He circled coastal communities in southeast Louisiana that bore the initial brunt of the storm, flying over Grand Isle, where Ida’s ferocious winds swept away homes and roofs.

In LaFourch Parish, he met with local leaders, joined again by Scalise. As the sun went down and temperatures finally dipped below the 80s, Biden met privately with officials in a building made of corrugated metal near Golden Meadow, one of Ida’s landfall locations.

As he flew over marshy areas already giving way to erosion and a rising Gulf, Biden, aboard Marine One, was trailed by press and aides flying aboard Ospreys.

Governor John Bel Edwards and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell joined Biden on his neighborhood tour. Earlier the two joined the president for a briefing at one of the coordination centers, which Biden arrived at after driving through rows electric poles toppled by the storm.

Dozens of white line crews could be seen lining the road as his motorcade passed. Biden once again praised crews from 24 states he said had come to aid the relief effort. One lineman in a green safety jacket gave a one-finger salute to the motorcade as it passed, as DailyMail.com observed traveling with the president.

Biden saluted those crews in his brief remarks while pool cameras rolled, noting that people responded from across the country to help.

'You're not going to put up the same system … Build it better,' he said, talking about burying power lines even if it costs more to defray future costs.

'I just want you all focused on that as you take a look,' he said, with House Republican Whip Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) in the room. Not a single Republican backed his sweeping 'reconciliation' bill when Democratic leaders brought it up, while his infrastructure bill drew some Republican support in the Senate.

His pitch came hours after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) published a searing op-ed called for a 'strategic pause' for the reconciliation bill – a posture that could imperil it.

'Take a look and see if what we're suggesting makes the most sense to you. Not whether it's not the money or not or too much. Does it make sense? Does it make sense?' Biden said.

Good of him

Lazy Baboons always caught up in hurricanes. Hardly you will see Caucasians caught up because they use their brains.

KillMNKnow:
Lazy Baboons always caught up in hurricanes. Hardly you will see Caucasians caught because they use their brains

Don't be a racist man

If flood like,make e cover an entire state.even wash am into atlantic ocean with humans.buhari will never step out of aso rock.

Biden na just American Buhari.

Two clueless set of senile people.

How CNN lost it’s voice of criticism since Biden became president can only be attributed to 8th wonder of the world.

I mean these guys criticized Trump if for waving his hands during covid. Fvck!

Now, everything Biden does is good. Fear the press.

See has he dey engage the people but our na presidency's you go here dey this and that

[quote author=blamingthedevil post=105472292][/quote]i love my America,die.

Even when thousands are killed in Nigeria our own never vista...

Biden feeling the heat of the Oval office.

Old man don old times two.

Wo

This man is just a little upgrade compared to our Bubu.

Never Buhari, the walking mannequin.

KillMNKnow:
Lazy Baboons always caught up in hurricanes. Hardly you will see Caucasians caught up because they use their brains.

You may think you are just catching cruise with your comments in nairaland but don't forget that karma is not called a biitch for nothing. It doesn't have sense to recognize either jokes or satire. The souls of people you hurt with your comments will blindly hunt you down someday.

Nonexisting1:
You may think you are just catching cruise with your comments in nairaland but don't forget that karma is not called a biitch for nothing. It doesn't have sense to recognize either jokes or satire. The souls of people you hurt with your comments will blindly hunt you down someday.

stop believing in fables

Nice one from him though I see him as an advance version of the incompetent buhari.

Wish all those affected solace since they still pulled through alive!


@SENIORWRITER

If na one country the presido go dey snap for red background...with big agbada dey make comment about the disaster wey him no know where e happen