dpa
los angeles
President Joe Biden landed in Hawaii on Monday with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Deanne Criswell to inspect wildfire damage in Maui while also keeping tabs on havoc spurred by Tropical Storm Hilary in Southern California and another set of fires that destroyed 200 homes in Washington state.
The events underscored the compounding threat of the nation’s climate disasters in the West. “The country grieves with you, stands with you and will do everything possible to help you recover,” Biden said, adding that the government would “respect culture and traditions when the rebuilding takes place.” Standing next to a burned banyan tree that he said was a symbol of the Hawaiian people’s resilience, Biden promised to rebuild as the people of Maui want, and “not the way others want to build.”
The president named Bob Fenton, a veteran FEMA official, to serve as a long-term recovery leader for Maui, where more than 100 people died and hundreds more are unaccounted for.
Biden surveyed damage and planned to meet with children and other victims who lost family members during the fires. “We’re going to be there for the long term to make sure that - not just today and tomorrow but into the future - there is a coordinated strategic federal response,” Olivia Dalton, deputy White House press secretary, told reporters aboard Air Force One before landing, “because this is going to be a long, hard process.”
The federal government has more than 1,000 people in Maui, including 450 working on search and rescue. The administration has also committed to spend at least $8.6mn to help individual families with rent and other needs.
