Joe Biden arrives in California to survey storm damage

US President Joe Biden lands in California to survey storm-ravaged areas.

Floods, landslides, and rockfalls pulverised much of the state over the last few weeks as nine storm systems crashed in from the Pacific Ocean. The storms claimed the lives of at least 20 people, cut off communities and left hundreds of thousands of homes without power.

Biden visited the state and joined Gov. Gavin Newsom and U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla in a helicopter to survey areas battered by winter storms that caused major flooding and landslides across the state.

The president walked along a broken boardwalk in Capitola and spoke with business owners about the estimated $1 billion in damage from the string of storms that started on Dec. 26 and led to at least 22 deaths.

“The federal government is not leaving its responsibility till it’s all fixed, it’s done,” Biden said in Aptos.

The president travelled to the state after issuing an emergency declaration for California that authorises the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief and offering federal aid for recovery efforts through a separate major disaster declaration in the six counties of Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Merced, Sacramento and Santa Cruz.

The storms ultimately dropped more than 17 inches of rain in San Francisco and 20 inches in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

It was San Francisco’s second-wettest three-week period since 1862.