Biden to visit Idalia-hit Florida as people survey hurricane damage

United States President Joe Biden on Thursday (August 31) announced that he will be visiting Florida on Saturday morning to interact with communities that have been ravaged by storm Idalia.

Idalia, which has now turned into a tropical storm, inundated Florida's coastal communities before moving ahead on its destructive path to the southeastern US coast.

Residents survey hurricane damage

The people in Florida on Thursday (August 31) started to clean up after flooding and rain caused by storm Idalia, which had turned into a hurricane and wreaked havoc before it weakened and headed out to the sea.

Idalia had travelled through the Sunshine State as a Category 3 storm, felling trees, flooding homes and breaking power lines before it barreled to the neighbouring states of Georgia and South and North Carolina.

Dozens of water-damaged items were being cleared by Keith Randall from his home decor store in Crystal River town. "It hit us pretty good inside," said the 52-year-old, while speaking to AFP.

"Anything on the floors got ruined. We are getting rid of all the cardboard that was in here. Lots of stuff was on the walls, but it's all good, it's just a lot of cleanup," he added.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said that 40 people have been rescued so far. Earlier, thousands of Floridians were asked to evacuate the town. The main task lying ahead is clearing debris and assessing the damage.

"There has been significant damage, particularly along Florida's Big Bend, but the community is resilient," DeSantis stated. Around 86,000 people in Georgia and 117,000 customers in Florida were without electricity on Thursday afternoon, as per tracking website PowerOutage.us.

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DeSantis said that they have already restored 420,000 accounts. More than 1,000 emergency personnel were deployed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to the disaster zone.

"Idalia is the strongest storm... to make landfall in this part of Florida in over 100 years," said FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell on Wednesday.

In North Carolina, tropical storm conditions were still being felt till Thursday afternoon, as per the US National Hurricane Center, as Idalia left the US mainland and moved towards the Atlantic.

As per NHC, Idalia is likely to slow further while approaching Bermuda over the weekend, where residents have been asked to monitor its progress.

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