President Joe Biden promised to ensure that the US territory of Puerto Rico receives sufficient resources to repair the damage wrought on the island by Hurricane Ian and rebuild its’ infrastructure to be far more resilient in the face of future disasters.
Speaking at port facilities in Ponce, Puerto Rico, Mr Biden said he and first lady Jill Biden have had the island “on our minds and in our prayers” in recent days following Ian, which is the latest of numerous severe hurricanes to devastate Puerto Rico’s infrastructure with high winds and floodwaters.
“We came here in person to show that we're with you — all of America is with you as you ... recover and rebuild,” he said, adding that he is “committed” to the island’s recovery.
The president noted that Ian is just the latest storm to lay waste to Puerto Rico in the last several years and described the damage it left behind as a “serious blow” to recovery efforts following Hurricanes Maria and Fiona, and said the storm must be “an all too familiar nightmare” for residents who lived through the previous ones.
In remarks to reporters earlier in the day, Mr Biden made it known that he believes the US territory has not been well-served by the federal government after past storms and acknowledged the deficiencies in the response to previous hurricanes such as Hurricane Maria, the September 2017 storm that killed 2,975 people in Puerto Rico.
"I’m heading to Puerto Rico because they haven’t been taken very good care of — they’ve been trying like hell to catch up from the last hurricane,” Mr Biden said just before departing the White House on Monday morning.
On the ground several hours later, the president praised Puerto Rico residents’ “resilience and determination” as “pretty extraordinary” and said the island deserves “every bit of help” the government is capable of providing.
“We're gonna make sure you get every single dollar promised, and I'm determined to help Puerto Rico rebuild faster than in the past and stronger and better prepared for the future,” he said, adding later that he was prepared to “deploy and expedite more resources from the Department of Energy and other federal agencies” to assist in rebuilding infrastructure, and in particular the island’s storm-ravaged power grid.
“We are not leaving here as long as I'm President ... until every single thing that we can do is done,” he said.
Mr Biden’s visit to the island comes five years after his predecessor, Donald Trump, made the trip there after Maria. According to a report by the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s inspector general, the Trump administration’s efforts to provision recovery funds to the island were “unnecessarily delayed by bureaucratic obstacles” such as opposition from the Trump White House Office of Management and Budget.
Though Mr Trump infamously made a show of tossing paper towel rolls to residents in need of aid when he toured hurricane damage, he later asked aides if the US could sell the island, according to the New York Times.
He also feuded with Puerto Rican officials on social media and blamed them for the island’s infrastructure problems, but he also claimed to be “the best thing that ever happened to Puerto Rico” after nearly 3,000 died on his watch.
While en route to Puerto Rico aboard Air Force One, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre noted that the Biden administration has worked to roll back “burdensome restrictions” placed on the Puerto Rican government by Mr Trump’s former administration that prevented access to $5bn in funds for “critical recovery and reconstruction needs”.
“With today's visit, President Biden is making clear that supporting the people of Puerto Rico remains his priority,” she said, adding that his administration would support recovery efforts “each step of the way, for as long as it takes” including through allocation of more than $60m in funding to reinforce levees and flood barriers, as well as roll out a flood warning system on the island.
