President Biden pledges ‘bold action’ on climate
change after touring Ida-ravaged Queens nabe
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TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | SEPT. 10 - SEPT. 16, 2021 5
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
President Joe Biden visited
New York City Tuesday, Sept.
7, touring a section of Queens
that was among the worst hit
by the remnants of Tropical
Storm Ida last week.
Biden walked an alley near
88th Street and Astoria Boulevard
in East Elmhurst with
local electeds, where floods
rose dangerously high during
the record-shattering rainfall
last week, and the commander
in-chief said that now is the
time for “bold action” to combat
climate change, which has
made extreme weather more
frequent and ferocious.
“My message to everyone
grappling with this devastation
is: We’re here, we’re not
going home until this gets done
— I really mean that,” Biden
told reporters. “We’re not leaving.
We’re going to continue to
shout as long as it takes to get
real progress here.”
“We have to take some bold
action now to tackle the accelerating
effects of climate
change,” he said.
The neighborhood suffered
catastrophic floods when the
storm hit the Big Apple on the
night of Wednesday, Sept. 1,
killing 13 people citywide, and
Biden said seeing the damage
first-hand in the workingclass,
immigrant neighborhood
was an “eye-opener.”
“This is America, where
I’m standing right now. These
are the people … who built this
country and it’s about time we
step up,” he said. “They’re always
the first ones that are
hurt and the last ones that are
helped, but that’s not gonna
happen this time.”
The extreme weather has
also caused at least $50 million
in damage to public infrastructure
and property when
it hit the city on the night
of Wednesday, Sept. 1, and
more than 1,200 homes were
damaged due to the recordshattering
downpour of rain,
according to state and federal
experts.
The president pushed for
lawmakers in Congress to
pass the infrastructure bill
and the budget reconciliation
legislation to boost the country’s
infrastructure, citing his
own Build Back Better proposal.
“You can’t build what it
was before this last storm,
you gotta build better so if the
storm occurred again, there
would be no damage,” he said.
“Folks, we’ve gotta listen to
the scientists, and the economists,
and the national security
experts. They all tell us this
is code red. The nation and the
world are in peril, and that’s
not hyperbole, that is a fact.”
Biden’s administration approved
a Major Disaster Declaration
on Monday unlocking
a boost in federal storm recovery
aid to local governments
and directly to New York City
residents through the Federal
Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA).
The financial support includes
repairs or replacement
of people’s property damaged
in the storm; moving and storage;
medical, dental and child
care; crisis counseling; unemployment
assistance; and legal
services.
He arrived at JFK Airport
Tuesday morning and traveled
to meet with leaders in New
Jersey, before returning to
the Big Apple to visit Queens
with Governor Kathy Hochul,
Senate Majority Leader Chuck
Schumer, Mayor Bill de Blasio
and other local politicians.
To apply for federal assistance
related to Ida, go to disasterassistance.
gov or call 1-800-
621-FEMA.
President Biden speaks at an alley in East Elmhurst on Sept. 7.
Photo by REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
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