Biden says federal government is helping Florida prepare for Hurricane Ian

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Before speaking at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health, President Biden urged Florida residents in the path of Hurricane Ian to heed warnings and directions from safety officials. He added that the federal government has deployed assistance and will help the state recover after the storm passes.

Video Transcript

JOE BIDEN: We all have been reading and hearing about the hurricane and hurricane Ian and its impact is going to have on our fellow Americans down in Florida. Yesterday, I spoke with Governor DeSantis for some time. My team has been in constant contact with him from the very beginning. And the mayors of Tampa, Saint Pete and Clearwater.

And my message has been absolutely clear is that we are on the alert and in action. We've approved every request Florida has made for temporary assistance, emergency assistance, long-term assistance that I've received. We discussed what we've done to prepare for the hurricane. That includes dispatching hundreds of FEMA personnel and activating thousands of National Guard members. I've also developed a search and rescue team and deploy them to multiple federal agencies and they've already on the ground are ready to help as we speak.

FEMA pre-positioned literally millions of liters of water, millions of meals and hundreds of generators. We have a scheduled everything we can possibly do and we think and so do the mayors and Governor. And we've had put up shelters. They're ready. We're not sure exactly where it's going to hit but it's pretty getting pretty clear where exactly where it's going to hit.

I made it clear to the governor and the mayors that the federal government is ready to help in every single way possible. Now I repeat what I said yesterday to the people of Florida. The storm is incredibly dangerous to state the obvious. It's life threatening. You should obey all warnings and directions from emergency officials. Don't take anything for granted. Use their judgment not yours. Evacuate when ordered. Be prepared. Storm warnings are real. The evacuation notices are real. The danger is real.

When the storm passes, the Federal governments can be there to help you recover. We'll be there to help you clean up and rebuild to help get Florida get moving again and we'll be there at every step of the way. That's my absolute commitment to the people of the state of Florida.

[APPLAUSE]