LIVE: Biden Delivers Remarks in Florida After Surveying Hurricane Milton Damage

Hello, folks. Just met a number of the homeowners and wiped out, and the Coast Guard and the Fire Department. It's a hell of a deal. I'm here in Florida for the second time in two weeks and to survey the damage from another catastrophic storm, Hurricane Milton. Thankfully, the storm's impact was not as cataclysmic as we had predicted, but on top of two before it, just keeps seeming like it's getting worse. And, you know, but for some individuals, it was cataclysmic. All those folks who not only lost their homes, but more importantly, those folks who lost their lives, lost family members, lost all their personal belongings. Entire neighborhoods were flooded and millions, millions were without power. Earlier this morning, I did an aerial tour of St. Petersburg and the battered coastline. I flew over Tropicana Field and with the Tampa Bay's play — Ray's play, and the roof is almost completely off. But thank God, not many people were injured. I spoke with first responders who were working around the clock. I also met with small business owners here and homeowners who have taken a real beating. These back-to-back storms. And they're heartbroken and exhausted, and their expenses are piling up. And I know from experience how devastating it is to lose your home. Several years ago, my home was struck by lightning. Didn't all burn down, but it were out of the home for seven months while it was being repaired. The thing I was most concerned about was not just the home, was all those things. All those — all those pictures I saved my — my daughter had drawn when she was little. All the — all the — all the family photographs, all the albums, all the things that really matter. Folks, the fact is that when you lose your wedding ring and the old photos, your children, family keepsakes — things that can't be replaced. But sometimes, from my own experience, that's the part that hurts the most. And I'm standing next to the mayor of Peace Beach and the chairwoman, Peters. Both their homes were damaged in Hurricane Milton. The mayor's home flooded. Family vehicles washed away. The county chair's home had experienced significant damage in the past two storms previous. It just finished rebuilding and settling back in. Now they have to do it all over again. Both their families lost precious personal belongings, but they've stepped up, not only to look out for themselves, but to help other families, help their neighbors. You know, that's the resilience of the people of West Florida. I want to thank them and all the public officials who've suffered consequential losses because of the storm, but who are out there doing things to help other people who had serious losses. It matters the American people should know the sacrifices they're making. You know, they've been steadfast partners as well. 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 would help you if you were in the same situation. We are one United States. One United States. I also came here to talk about all the progress we have made together. This is a whole-of-government effort, from state and local, to FEMA, to U.S. Coast Guard, Army Corps of Engineers, the Energy Department, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Defense, just to name a few. FEMA has delivered 1.2 million meals, over 300,000 liters of water, 2 million gallons of fuel. And so far, we've installed 100 satellite terminals to restore communications in impacted areas so families can contact their loved ones to be sure everything's okay and be able to reach out for help as well. Speaking of help, so far, we've opened 10 disaster recovery centers in Florida with more to come so people can have one stop to meet with officials, get the federal help they're entitled to that's available to them. Such a direct, immediate financial aid of no-interest payment loans, mortgage relief, and so much more. You can also go online to DisasterAssistance.gov, DisasterAssistance.gov, or call 1-800-621-FEMA, F-E-M-A. Yesterday, after I signed the major disaster declaration, more than 250,000 Floridians registered for help. Two hundred fifty thousand. The most in any single day ever in the history of this country. Two hundred fifty thousand. I know you're concerned about the debris removal, and it's obvious why. We're prioritizing debris removal and working with the state and local partners to clear roads, to get wreckage into the two hurricanes off properties, and so more folks can return home. And businesses can receive much-needed deliveries of food, fuel, medicine, and other essentials. That's a priority for me. Power has also been restored to over 2 million people in a matter of days. And thanks to tens of thousands of power workers from 43 states and Canada working nonstop, even more people will have more power restored soon. Today, I'm proud to announce $612 million to six new cutting-edge projects to support communities impacted by Hurricane Elaine and Milton. That includes $47 million for Gainesville Regional Utilities and another $47 million for Florida Power and Light. 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. In fact, we've been able to restore power quicker because of critical infrastructure investments were made both when I was Vice President and President to harden the grid. For folks at home, the grid means the electrical power system that transmits energy from where it's produced in the power plant to where it's used in homes and businesses. We've been hardening the grid like burying transmission lines underground, replacing wood power poles with concrete or composite poles so they don't snap in the wind. Energy Secretary Granholm is here with me today leading this effort, and she'll tell you more about it and other cutting-edge technologies in the grid in a moment. Let me close with this. I'm here to personally say thank you to the brave first responders. Now, I don't want to underestimate that. Brave first responders. Men and women in uniform. Utility workers. So, look at the number that showed up from around the country, from Canada, California, Nebraska, all over the country to come here to help. Men and women in uniform, as I said, healthcare personnel, neighbors helping neighbors, and so many more people. This is all a team effort, folks. You made a big difference, and it saved lives. But there's much more to do, and we're going to do everything we can to get power back in your home, not only helping you recover, but to help you build back stronger. God bless you all. May God protect our first responders, protect our troops. Now I'm going to turn this over to Secretary Granholm. Madam Secretary. Thank you, Mr. President. I would like to echo the President's thanks to all the first responders and to the utility crews from across the continent who have been stepping forward to help in our time of need here and in the other affected states. DOE, the Department of Energy, continues to work with the utility sector to make sure you have what you need. I'm pleased to say that 75, about 75 percent of the power has been restored across Florida, and most believing that by the end of Tuesday, the vast majority will be online. The unprecedented intensity of the damage and the disruptions overwhelmingly underscore the actions that the Biden-Harris administration really has taken to harden the grid against extreme weather. These include the new investments that the President just announced for the Southeast. When we took office, we knew the grids across the country had been suffering from decades of underinvestment. There was a dire need for repairs and upgrades and expansions. So the Biden-Harris team secured unprecedented funding in the bipartisan infrastructure law to begin modernizing these systems. Before the President's announcement today, since the passage of that bipartisan infrastructure law, the Department of Energy anyway has allocated roughly $680 million to grid resilience projects just in the states that have been affected by Hurricanes Milton and Helene. That amount roughly doubles when you include matching investments from states and utilities. And several of these projects are already underway. For example, undergrounding the power lines, super important. Raising substations in the face of flooding. Installing technology on the grid that can identify blackouts before they happen and can shorten them when they do happen. Technology that increases transmission capacity so that power can move where and when it's needed most. These are all the upgrades that will be funding. So the announcement of the additional $612 million that the President made today will mean that we will have seen $2.5 billion worth of investment in these regions, in these states, to make the grid more resilient. A combined investment from the Department of Energy, states, and private utilities. And these partnerships are critical to making these projects successful and to bringing resilience to families and businesses across the Southeast. These investments obviously are not going to prevent the next storm, but they certainly will make sure that in the coming years, we can respond and recover from these storms more quickly. So to the people of Florida, as the President has said, we will be here for you as long as it takes. So thank you. And with that, I'd like to bring up St. Pete Mayor Petrilla. Thank you, Madam Secretary. Mr. President, I want to thank you for coming here today to see the devastation and the destruction with your own eyes. And we thank you for your support during this difficult and historic time. Like so many of my neighbors, my family and I, we felt the full force, first of Hurricane Helene and then of also Hurricane Milton. After the floodwaters of Helene hit, we thought we could begin to recover. We were patching up windows, cleaning up debris, and trying to get back to something resembling normalcy. And just as we finally began to find our footing, here comes Milton. And with it, another wave of devastation. You can see it everywhere. Our roofs were torn up. Our trees were pulled up. Our homes were destroyed. And like so many in our town, my wife and I, we thought we're concerned about our safety. We're concerned about the future of our town. I have walked these streets. I've seen the destruction. I've sat with families who've lost so much. And I've seen businesses struggling to reopen. I have firsthand felt the emotional and economic toll that these storms have taken on all of us. But one thing remains true. We are Americans. We have been beaten. We have been battered. But we will not be broken. We are resilient. And we will rebuild. That said, we cannot do this without the incredible support of FEMA, our state, our county, our first responders, and your administration, Mr. President. The resources that you have helped provide for us have been a lifeline to my family and to our community, to our neighbors. And on behalf of all of St. Pete Beach, you have our sincerest gratitude. Yet we know that the road to recovery is long. And today, I'm asking for your continued support to help bridge the gap between where we are today and where we want to be, where we need to be in the future. We need help to rebuild our infrastructure, revive our businesses, and provide critical assistance to the families who are still picking up the pieces of their lives. The urgent needs are clear. We need economic relief. We need continued federal resources. And we need a path forward to ensure that our community and all other communities, all other cities who are devastated just like this town, can emerge stronger than ever before. Together, with your support, Mr. President, we can and we will rebuild. Thank you for standing with us. Chairman Hughes? It's very good to be here. And I love to see all our first responders. You've done an outstanding job. I'm Commissioner Kathleen Peters with Pinellas County. And I can tell you that the county is working diligently to get our water running, to get our sewer systems back up and running. And we're with Duke Energy, following them along to cut down the trees to make sure that they can get our power grid up and running in a collaborative effort. We've worked diligently and closely with the state. And I cannot thank our governor and our state officials enough. They have done an amazing job to help us with removal of debris, with bringing resources in to get the port open so we can get gasoline and get all of our businesses up and running. I've spoken with the president and his staff, and they are working tirelessly to send assistance. And I am very, very grateful to the way the president has responded. I think he has done an outstanding job in this situation. And I am truly, truly grateful. I'm hopeful. I sent a letter to the state, which will then go to the White House, asking for just, at a minimum, there's quite a few things we asked for, but at a minimum, to merge the two storms. Can you imagine if we had to separate our debris? This is Helene debris, and this is Milton debris. There's just no possible way that we would be able to do that effectively and efficiently. And by merging the two storms into one disaster will help expedite a lot of red tape to make this much quicker a recovery. So I'm looking forward to that announcement that that will happen. The ones I want to thank the most are my neighbors, my first responders. Neighbors have been helping neighbors. As the president mentioned, I, too, had four feet of water in my home, and I lost all my personal things and my clothes and my memories. But what has been outstanding is every neighbor helping other neighbors. The kindness that has poured into this community has been amazing and overwhelming. It makes us so proud to be American. American has always been strong, and this is just an example of the resilience and the strength of every one of our residents and our community. And I am so eternally grateful for every one of my neighbors, every one of my police officers and fire and EMS personnel. My son was in the water rescuing people at night during Haleen, and he was also in the water rescuing people out of the apartment buildings in Clearwater. I cannot thank our first responders enough. This is a storm we'll never forget, but it's what's gonna make us so much stronger and better. So thank you all for coming. Thank you, all of you that have been working with me to meet with the president and to make our community safe again. Thank you so much, and thank you, Mr. President.