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ROLLING FORK, MI (AP) — President Joe Biden Witnessing collapsed homes, broken furniture and upended lives left behind by last week’s deadly tornado in Mississippi, the federal government said Friday it won’t leave until the area is back to normal. I promised.
In the close-knit community of Rolling Fork, Biden toured the rubble before reading aloud the names of 13 residents of the small town who died in the storm. He acknowledged to residents that the road to recovery will be long and arduous, but said he is committed to helping them through it.
“We’re not just here today,” Biden said, addressing members of the devastated community, standing near an animal shelter and a hardware store that had been ravaged by a powerful storm. We’ll make it happen for you, and we’ll make sure you can stay here.”
Biden trailed Mississippi by more than 16 percentage points in 2020, but people thanked him for coming and hoped he wasn’t forgotten. Resident Paul Rice said he welcomed the continued attention Friday’s visit brought to the town’s plight.
“Everybody’s here now, but I think it’s going to start to dry up,” said Rice, who was driving around town on an ATV to survey the damage and check on friends whose homes were destroyed. “We are Americans first and foremost, and that means we all have to work together.”
The president thanked Republican Governor Tate Reeves and Rep. Benny Thompson, a longtime Democrat in the area, for acting swiftly to support Rolling Fork and the surrounding area after last week’s storm. praised.
Under a canopy set up a few blocks from the destroyed City Hall in Rolling Fork, church volunteers handed out packages of breakfast sausages and pancakes with syrup Friday morning. Joseph His Thomas, a 77-year-old Vietnam veteran and lifelong Rolling Fork resident, arrived to request a meal wearing a bandana emblazoned with the American flag.
Thomas said he never imagined a president would come to his rural Delta hometown.
“I’m proud that he’s coming to this little little town. It means a lot to me,” Thomas said. “We need a lot of help getting through here, so please get your feet on the ground to put all of this back together with the help of the federal government.”
Last week’s Twister destroyed nearly 300 homes and businesses in Rolling Fork and the nearby town of Silver City, leaving piles of timber, brick and twisted metal behind. Hundreds of additional structures were badly damaged. Overall, the Mississippi death toll stands at 21, based on what the coroner has confirmed.One person also died in Alabama.
As he flew from Marine One to the areas hardest hit by last week’s storms, President and First Lady Jill Biden saw the devastation of acres of farmland, including destroyed homes, fallen trees and piles of rubble. I witnessed it.
After arriving in Rolling Fork, Biden was greeted by state, local and federal officials and said, “This is a tough one.” “The most important thing is to give people, especially those who have lost someone, a reason to hope.”
Biden announced that the federal government will cover the total cost of state emergency measures for the next 30 days.In addition, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will open disaster recovery centers in storm-ravaged counties to help residents Allows access to resources.
The Bidens also met with storm-affected residents and first responders, and received briefings on the operation from federal and state officials.
The damage caused by the typhoon is enormous.
Residents watched Biden walk the rolling fork flats just a few blocks from downtown town. Her father carried the sleeping infant on his shoulders. Children who couldn’t go to school because of the tornado squatted down and watched. Just before the president arrived, a man pushed his way through the rubble and bent down to comb through it.
“I know there’s a lot of pain, and moments like this are hard to believe. This community will be rebuilt, rebuilt, and better than it was before,” Biden assured residents.
Last week’s bad weather made life even more difficult in an already economically struggling regionMississippi is one of the poorest states and the majority Black Delta has long been one of the poorest areas in the state. In this area, many people live on wages from jobs related to agriculture.
The two counties hit by the tornado, Sharkey and Humphreys, are among the sparsely populated counties in the state, with thousands of people scattered across vast cotton, corn and soybean fields. only residents of Sharkey has a poverty rate of 35% and Humphreys has a poverty rate of 33%, compared to about 19% for the entire state of Mississippi and less than 12% for the United States as a whole.
FEMA administrator Dean Criswell said some of the damage to infrastructure in the area will take time to repair, making critical facilities “more resilient” to withstand future natural disasters. He said the government would support the rebuilding to “something”.
“We know these communities can be underfunded, and we want to make sure that money flows,” Criswell added.
Biden approved the state’s disaster declaration and released federal funds for temporary housing, home repairs, and loans to cover uninsured property loss. But there are concerns that inflation and economic problems will dampen the effectiveness of federal aid.
The President arrives in the Delta community as a new series of severe storms threaten to hit the Midwest and South.
The United States will see more of these massive storms as the world warms, according to a new study. Storms are likely to occur more frequently in more populous southern states such as Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee.
Research in the Proceedings of the American Meteorological Society shows a 6.6% increase in tornado- and hail-producing supercell storms nationwide, and a 25.8% increase in the area and duration of the strongest storms under a scenario of moderate levels of future warming by the end of the century. We expect it to increase.
However, in certain areas of the South, the rate of increase is much higher. This includes a rolling fork in which the study authors predict an increase in supercells of one per year by 2100.
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