President Biden To Survey New Jersey Storm Damage Left Behind by Remnants Of Ida
LAMBERTVILLE, N.J. (CBS) - President Biden will be in New Jersey to tour the widespread damage from the remnants of Ida. He'll be joining New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, who has been meeting with residents whose homes were destroyed in the storm.
Biden is set to tour Manville, New Jersey, and the New York City borough of Queens on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the cleanup is just beginning for those whose homes were destroyed by the storm.
"Right now we're taking things day by day," homeowner Nick Cepparulo said. "We're constantly reminding ourselves that we're lucky everyone was safe."
Nick Cepparulo is counting his blessings even after seeing his home of 11 years destroyed by ida. His house on Curley Lane in Lambertville was swept right off its foundation in floodwaters.
"We'll be alright, we just need a little help getting there," Cepparulo said.
And help is on the way. The federal government has named six New Jersey counties as major disaster areas. They include Bergen, Gloucester, Hunterdon, Middlesex, Passaic and Somerset counties. The major disaster declaration will allow individual businesses and homeowners to apply directly to FEMA for assistance. Governor Phil Murphy toured the damage in Lambertville on Monday.
"We can't keep seeing this movie again," Murphy said. "I just spoke to a guy it's his fourth time. He loves this place, he's going to rebuild and going to stay here. But we owe it to people like that to have better stronger climate infrastructure."
With the governor on Monday was Congressman Tom Malinowski. He says they're now looking to prevent future storm damage like this. He says in the infrastructure bill currently making its way through congress, there are $50 billion for climate-resilient infrastructure
"For flood control, stormwater management, for exactly the stuff we're going to need to prevent this from happening again, but don't forget this could get worse if we don't do something about climate change," Malinowski said.
If you live outside of the six counties that have the major disaster declaration and your home or businesses suffered damage, the governor is still encouraging you to register with FEMA. He says more help may be available in the near future.
