Biden arrives in California to tour damage from severe storms

MOFFETT FEDERAL AIRFIELD, Calif., Jan 19 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden arrived in California on Thursday to tour areas hit exhausting by a collection of lethal “atmospheric river” storms that inflicted widespread flooding, felled timber and introduced mudslides to a state lengthy gripped by excessive drought.

Biden, touring with the pinnacle of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Deanne Criswell, landed in Santa Clara County, then took off by helicopter for an aerial survey of different storm-stricken places south of San Francisco.

The president, who on Saturday licensed federal catastrophe help for 3 hard-hit counties in northern and central California, was greeted at Moffett Federal Airfield by Governor Gavin Newsom and different elected officers.

The itinerary referred to as for not less than two stops alongside the Santa Cruz coast, the place flash floods, excessive tides and runoff from native mountains compelled hundreds of residents to evacuate from low-lying communities.

Biden deliberate to meet with enterprise house owners, residents, native leaders and emergency groups in the city of Capitola and close by Seacliff State Beach, the place he was anticipated to ship remarks. Twisted wreckage of wood piers at each places vividly illustrated the storms’ harmful pressure.

Criswell instructed reporters aboard Air Force One to California that early estimates put property damage at a number of hundred million {dollars} statewide, with that determine anticipated to rise as additional assessments are made.

“California has really experienced some unprecedented storms,” she mentioned.

At least 20 deaths have been attributed to a three-week barrage of 9 storms labeled as atmospheric rivers – huge airborne currents of dense moisture funneled in from the Pacific and powered by sprawling low-pressure methods churning offshore.

Experts say the rising frequency and depth of such storms, punctuating excessive drought, are signs of local weather change and make it harder to handle California’s valuable water provides whereas minimizing heightened dangers of floods and wildfires.

Torrential downpours triggered widespread flooding in addition to a whole lot of mudslides, rockfalls and sinkholes throughout the state, swallowing automobiles, forcing highway closures and even disrupting rail journey.

Landslide hazards mounted by the week from repeated saturation, with a lot of the damage best in areas under hillsides and canyon slopes that previous wildfires stripped of vegetation and left unstable.

The onslaught of showers – and heavy snow in the mountains – was accompanied by gale-force winds that drove pounding surf into coastal areas, washing out seaside roads and wharfs and uprooting hundreds of drought-weakened timber in rain-soaked soil.

The excessive winds wreaked havoc on the state’s energy grid, knocking out electrical energy to tens of hundreds of Californians.

Although extremely damaging, the storms eased a historic four-year dry spell in California, replenishing some badly depleted reservoirs and the Sierra Nevada snowpack, a vital supply of contemporary water for the state.

But consultants have warned that a lot of the state stays underneath reasonable or severe drought situations with no assurance that the rest of California’s winter will see sufficient extra precipitation to maintain drought reduction.

Reporting by Jeff Mason in Washington; Additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Katherine Jackson in Washington; Writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Gerry Doyle and Josie Kao

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