President Biden tours California storm damage, visiting Santa Cruz, Monterey counties
SANTA CRUZ -- President Joe Biden walked along the splintered boardwalk of this picture-postcard beach town Thursday and heard from business owners struggling to repair damage to their shops after deadly storms caused devastation across the region and killed more than 20 people statewide.
Santa Cruz County was among the hardest-hit parts of California from the wet and windy weather. The county had estimated damage to its public infrastructure at $55 million as of Wednesday, with likely more than 1,000 homes affected.
Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell, speaking to reporters on Air Force One earlier Thursday, said a lot of the coastal impact during the storms was caused by loose timber left behind from devastating wildfires in 2020 that washed out to sea, but then crashed back ashore in heavy surf, damaging infrastructure like the Capitola Pier and Seacliff State Beach in Aptos.
Biden toured a gutted seafood restaurant and the badly flooded Paradise Beach Grille, not far from the collapsed Capitola Pier and the brightly painted pink, orange and teal shops that are all boarded up following the storms. Walls were crumbling, debris scattered everywhere and floors swept away by raging waters.
Paradise Beach Grille Owner Chuck Maier told Biden that water had gushed up from the floor and swamped his business on Monterey Bay. "No kidding," Biden exclaimed.
"Sorry man, we're slowing up your work" he said to contractors on the scene.
"You don't feel it until you walk the streets," Biden said later from nearby Seacliff State Park, speaking about how bad the damage was and blaming climate change for the severity of the weather. "If anybody doubts the climate is changing, they must have been asleep for the last couple of years."
"The more attention we can get, the more assistance we can get, will help everybody," said co-owner of Zelda's on the Beach John Ealy, who also met with Biden. "Hopefully they'll support SBA loans, give support for the businesses to get back on their feet as quickly as they can."
"We survived the pandemic -- that was doable. We've survived other storms, an earthquake," Ealy said. "I mean, I think it just reminds me of how strong the community is. And how important it is to get built back and reopened."
Co-owner of Caruso's Melissa Serriteno said she was happy the area was getting attention from such a high-profile visit.
"With his own eyes he's going to see how bad it is down here. I mean, it's one thing to see it on TV. But, to see it in real life makes a huge difference," Serriteno said. "The sooner he helps us out, the sooner our village will come back."
"It's really sad to see it that way," she added. "I just hope that our village comes back soon, because I really miss it. I miss the livelihood, I miss everything. Once we're ready to go, come and support us."
Flanked by Criswell, first responders and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, the president highlighted the damage from the punishing rains, powerful winds, floods and landslides. He warned climate change would create more extreme weather.
"We know some of the destruction is going to take years to rebuild," Biden said. "But we've got to not just rebuild, but rebuild better."
More than 500 FEMA and other federal personnel have been deployed to California to support the emergency operations. Thousands of bystanders gathered for the president's visit and cheered him on.
From Dec. 26 to Jan. 17, California was deluged by 11.47 inches of rain and snow on average across the state, according to the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center, with some reports of up to 15 feet of snow in the highest elevations of the Sierra Nevada.
California gets much of its rain and snow in the winter from a weather phenomenon known as "atmospheric rivers" — long, narrow bands of water vapor that form over the ocean and flow through the sky.
California has been hit by nine atmospheric rivers since late December. The storms have relented in recent days. Forecasters were calling for light rain toward the end of this week followed by a dry period.
Criswell said Thursday on the trip from Washington that the president and staff have to be mindful of what people have been through when traveling to places devastated by storms and other natural disasters.
"There has just been so much trauma to this community and it's really important that we keep that in mind," he said. "These communities have had loss of life, loss of their well-being and their livelihood, and I think it's incredibly important that they know that the president is here to support them and that the full force of the federal family is going to be behind them."
Biden has already approved a major disaster declaration for the state, freeing additional federal resources for recovery efforts. Hours before the visit, he raised the level of federal assistance available even higher.
Newsom praised the fast federal response, but warned the threat remains high in a state that just a few years ago suffered devastating drought and is now facing record rainfall.
"The scale and scope of these floods is hard to understand unless you get out, and that's why I couldn't be more grateful to the president for taking the time to come out again."