President Obama Briefed on Response and Recovery Efforts to Hurricane Sandy
This morning, the President convened a briefing
at that National Response Coordination Center at FEMA headquarters to receive
the latest update on federal efforts to support state and local response and
recovery activities. At FEMA, the President was joined by Secretary of Homeland
Security Janet Napolitano, FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, Defense Secretary
Leon Panetta, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Health and Human Services Secretary
Kathleen Sebelius, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan,
Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, SBA
Administrator Karen Mills, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Winnefeld
as well as Deputy Chief of Staff Alyssa Mastromonaco, Deputy Assistant to the
President for Homeland Security Richard Reed, and other senior members of the
President’s team. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, Secretary of
Agriculture Tom Vilsack and USNORTHCOM Commander General Jacoby joined the
briefing by phone.
On the call the President received an update
from the National Weather Service, including a forecast on a coastal low
pressure system that could be moving into the area in coming days, and spoke
directly with a number of state and local officials, who also joined by phone,
including Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy, New Jersey Governor Chris
Christie, and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, as well as Borough
President’s and mayors from across the affected area. This conversation
provided the President and his team another opportunity to discuss specific
challenges with state and local leaders, including issues related to power
generation, fuel challenges, and long term housing needs among others.
The President made clear that his Administration
would continue to use all available resources to support the deployment of
necessary assets, and directed his team to continue to focus on identifying and
removing any barriers to the movement of these resources. On Thursday,
following a conversation between the President and utility executives, the
Department of Defense airlifted utility resources, including bucket trucks and
other assets, from California to New York to support power restoration efforts.
Yesterday, FEMA announced that the President directed the Defense Logistics
Agency (DLA) to purchase up to 12 million gallons of unleaded fuel and up to 10
million gallons of diesel fuel for distribution in areas impacted by the storm
to supplement ongoing private sector efforts. This purchase will be
transported by tanker trucks and distributed throughout New York, New Jersey
and other communities impacted by the storm. This announcement followed a
decision earlier in the day to provide a temporary blanket waiver to the Jones
Act, to ensure tankers could move oil and refined gas to the New York area as
quickly as possible. On today’s call, following a discussion of additional
resources available to individuals impacted by the storm, the President also
directed SBA Administrator Karen Mills to brief local officials directly on the
low-cost loans available through the FEMA Disaster Declarations provided to
eligible families.
The President thanked the state and local
officials on the call for their hard work, and specifically praised the heroic
efforts of the first responders still on the front lines, and told his team
that continuing to surge all available resources was the administration’s top
priority. The President closed by making clear he expected no letup in these
efforts.
A full list of Administration travel taking
place to affected areas today can be found below:
Today, following the briefing Administration
officials will visit storm-damaged communities throughout the affected region,
see response efforts first hand, and make sure that necessary resources are
getting to state and local partners who are still responding and beginning
recovery efforts. Secretary Donovan will visit public housing developments in
the Rockaways and tour Breezy Point, New York, to hear from state and
local officials and see first-hand the damage and recovery efforts there.
Secretary Sebelius will visit with hospital workers, residents impacted by the
storm, and local officials in Manhattan and Brooklyn, New York. Administrator
Mills will join Governor Malloy and other state and local officials in Norwalk
and Bridgeport, Connecticut, to meet with small business owners and other
residents affected by the storm. Secretary Napolitano will travel to West
Virginia and Long Island, New York to see response and recovery efforts
underway. And Assistant to the President for Homeland Security John Brennan
will join officials from FEMA, the Department of Transportation, and the Army
Corps of Engineers to view impacted areas in Hoboken, Newark, and Jersey City,
New Jersey, as well as Staten Island, New York.
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