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The remains of a home that burned still smolders in Manville, N.J., Sunday, Sept. 5, 2021, in the wake of the remnants of Hurricane Ida. Flood-stricken families and business owners across the Northeast are hauling waterlogged belongings to the curb and scraping away noxious mud as cleanup from Ida moves into high gear.
Craig Ruttle/The Associated Press
U.S. President Joe Biden declared that a major disaster exists in New Jersey, days after Hurricane Ida caused intense flooding that killed dozens in the U.S. Northeast.
Biden ordered federal aid to supplement local recovery efforts in the areas affected by the remnants of Hurricane Ida from Sept. 1 to Sept. 3, the White House said in a statement.
Biden will travel to Manville, New Jersey, and the Queens borough of New York City on Tuesday to assess damage from Ida.
In New Jersey, there were at least 27 confirmed storm deaths and four people missing, a spokesperson for Governor Phil Murphy said on Sunday.
Separately, New York Governor Kathy Hochul had said she was requesting Biden to issue a major-disaster declaration for her state.
Ida, one of the most powerful hurricanes ever to strike the U.S. Gulf Coast, hit Louisiana about a week ago before moving northeast and causing intense flooding.
Ida’s death toll continued to rise on Sunday, with many in the U.S. Northeast holding out hope for people missing in the flood waters. Over 500,000 people in Louisiana were without power as of Monday morning, according to the PowerOutage.us website, which tracks power outages.
Ida’s record-breaking rainfall of 3.1 inches (7.8 cm) per hour on Wednesday, recorded in New York City’s Central Park, sent walls of water cascading through businesses, public transportation systems and 1,200 homes, causing more than $50 million in damage, the New York governor said.
She added she was also requesting federal funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s individual assistance program for 14 counties.
Hochul said she had directed that $378 million in previously awarded hazard mitigation funding from FEMA be devoted to supporting New York’s infrastructure against extreme weather.
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Oil spills The U.S. Coast Guard on Monday said it was probing nearly 350 reports of oil spills in and along the U.S. Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Ida.
Hurricane Ida’s 150 mile per hour (240 kph) winds wreaked havoc on offshore oil production platforms and onshore oil and gas processing plants. About 88 per cent of the region’s offshore oil production remains shut and more than 100 platforms unoccupied after the storm made landfall Aug. 29.
The Coast Guard has been conducting flyovers off the coast of Louisiana looking for spills. It is providing information to federal, state and local authorities responsible for cleaning the sites.
Flights on Sunday found evidence of a new leak from an offshore well and reported another leak responsible for a miles-long streak of oil was no longer active. A third report of oil near a drilling platform could not be confirmed, it said.
Offshore oil producer Talos Energy Inc, which hired divers and a cleanup crew to respond to an oil spill in Bay Marchand, said old pipelines damaged during the storm were apparently responsible for the visible streak.
The spill off the coast of Port Fourchon, Louisiana, had decreased substantially since it was first discovered last week, Talos said. The company is not the owner of the pipelines and had ceased operations in the area four years ago, said spokesman Brian L. Grove.
An offshore well belonging to S2 Energy was discharging oil about five miles (8 km) away from the Bay Marchand site, the Coast Guard said. The company told the Coast Guard it has secured the wellhead and it was no longer discharging oil.
S2 did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
With files from Arpan Varghese and Gary McWilliams