U.S. President Joe Biden reacts as he holds his sunglasses while arriving in Port of Ponce, Puerto Rico, on Monday to survey damage from Hurricane Fiona. Tens of thousands of people in the U.S. territory remain without power two weeks after the storm hit. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)
U.S. President Joe Biden promised to "rebuild it all" after arriving in Puerto Rico on Monday to survey damage from Hurricane Fiona, as tens of thousands of people remain without power two weeks after the storm hit.
"I'm committed to this island," he said after receiving a briefing from local officials, acknowledging that Fiona was only the latest in a string of disasters that have battered the U.S. territory in recent years.
"Puerto Ricans are a strong people," Biden said. "But even so, you have had to bear so much, and more than need be, and you haven't gotten the help in a timely way."
Power has been restored to about 90 per cent of the island's 1.47 million customers, but more than 137,000 others, mostly in the hardest hit areas of Puerto Rico's southern and western regions, continue to struggle in the dark. Another 66,000 customers are without water.
The weather remained ominous as Biden spoke. Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed in the distance.
"I don't want the headline to read, 'Biden brings storm to Puerto Rico,'" he joked. "So I'm gonna maybe have to cut this a little short."
Biden has pledged that the U.S. government will not abandon Puerto Rico as it starts to rebuild again, five years after the more powerful Hurricane Maria devastated the island in 2017.
Biden announced that the administration will provide $60 million US through last year's bipartisan infrastructure law to help Puerto Rico shore up levees, strengthen flood walls and create a new flood warning system so the island will be better prepared for future storms.
People in Florida also faced another week without power, and others were being rescued from homes inundated with lingering floodwaters in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian.
Frustrations mounted in the path that the storm cut through Florida, and the hurricane's remnants, now a nor'easter, weren't done with the U.S.
The mid-Atlantic and northeast coasts were getting flooding rains. Forecasters said the storm's onshore winds could pile even more water into an already inundated Chesapeake Bay and threatened to cause the most significant tidal flooding event in Virginia's Hampton Roads region in more than a decade.
Norfolk and Virginia Beach declared states of emergency as they watched to see how bad Monday's tides would be. Coastal flooding was possible from North Carolina's Outer Banks to Long Island, the National Weather Service said.
At least 68 people have been confirmed dead — 61 in Florida, four in North Carolina and three in Cuba — since Ian made its first landfall on the Caribbean island on Sept. 27 and in Florida a day later.