Biden announces $612 million in hurricane relief

Oct. 13 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden announced $612 million for six federal projects in the Southeast Sunday in response to back-to-back hurricanes that ravaged the region.

Biden toured flood-damaged areas of Florida and said the Department of Energy projects will strengthen the electrical grid. He said the money is a "whole government" effort to help the state recover.

"This funding will not only restore power, but will make the region's power system stronger and more capable and reduce the frequency and duration of power outages while extreme weather events become more frequent," Biden said.

"We've been in frequent contact, and it's in moments like this, we come together to take care of each other -- not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans. Americans, who need help, and Americans who help you, if you were in the same situation," Biden said in St. Petersburg. "We are one, United States."

Two of the projects, worth a combined $94 million, will focus on Florida, according to the White House.

Florida was wracked by hurricane Milton last week on the heels of Hurricane Helene less than two weeks prior. Milton made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane and killed at least 17 people. Nearly 800,000 remain without power, according to poweroutage.us .

Biden thanked local officials Sunday for their response, and recognized first responders who had flooded into the region in the days following Milton.

"Go look at the numbers that showed up from around the country -- Canada, California, Nebraska, all over the country -- to come here to help. Men and women in uniform, as I said, health care personnel, neighbors helping neighbors and so many more people," Biden said. "This is all a team effort, folks. It made a big difference, and it saved lives. But there's much more to do."

Milton ravaged homes, sparked tornadoes that killed at least a dozen people on the eastern side of the state, opposite of where it made landfall, ripped most of the roof off of Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, home to Major League Baseball's Tampa Bay Rays and caused untold damage to individual people and businesses.

People in the hills of western North Carolina are two weeks deep into emergency recovery efforts after Hurricane Helene made landfall in a sparsely populated area of Florida but made a turn to the northeast, ravaging parts of Northern Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina, where about 17,000 people remain without power. Water, power and cell phone services still have not been restored in parts of the region.

Helene accounted for at least 227 deaths across the Southeast, 115 of whom died in North Carolina, officials. The death toll is expected to increase as crews continue to search for missing people.

Two major storms in such a short time span have also caused stress and despair in addition to the physical destruction and death.

"It's hard for me not to imagine the heartbreak," Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said Friday, as he surveyed flooding in the Tampa suburb of Valrico. Floodwaters from the Alafia River were six feet deep in some areas, quietly breaking against the walls of homes.