Hurricane Ida: US president Joe Biden heads to storm-ravaged New York

Washington: President Joe Biden heads on Tuesday to storm-ravaged New York and New Jersey, just days after inspecting the damage caused by Hurricane Ida in Louisiana. Biden— who is pushing a giant infrastructure spending bill, including major funding for the green economy— argues that extreme weather across the United States this summer is a harbinger of worse climate change to come. Ida struck the US Gulf Coast as a Category 4 hurricane, bringing major flooding and knocking out power to large parts of the heavily populated region, which is also a main hub for the oil industry. The departing remnants of the hurricane then caught authorities in the New York region by surprise, with ferocious rainfall triggering flash flooding. The final blast of the storm killed at least 47 people in the US Northeast as it turned streets into raging rivers, inundated basements and shutting down the New York subway. Biden was to tour Manville, New Jersey and the New York borough of Queens before making remarks at 4:00 pm (2000 GMT). With his presidency straining from the aftermath of the Afghanistan pullout and surging Covid infections at home, Biden faces a difficult coming few weeks, including a struggle to get his infrastructure plans through the narrowly divided Congress.