The latest on Ida’s aftermath

Five of the six properties where 10 New York City residents died were illegally converted cellar and basement apartments, according to a statement released by the New York City Department of Buildings.

Those properties were in the Queens and Brooklyn sections of New York City, according to the statement.

“Our team is tirelessly conducting inspections at over a thousand properties across the five boroughs in the aftermath of Wednesday’s storm, and we’ll continue doing everything we can to keep New Yorkers safe in their residences,” the department’s commissioner, Melanie La Rocca, said in the statement.

According to the buildings department, an illegal conversion is an alteration of an existing building to create additional apartment units without first obtaining proper permits or approval, many of which do not follow proper code requirements.

Basements and cellars are categorized differently by the buildings department. A “basement” means more than 50% of floor height is above grade. A “cellar” means more than 50% of the floor height is below grade.

The department said that it has received reports of more than 1,100 properties across the city that have reported damage from the storm. The buildings department says inspectors are conducting safety inspections of these locations

The Biden administration announced Friday it will unleash a second batch of crude oil from the nation’s emergency stockpile as Louisiana continues to grapple with widespread gas station outages.

The Energy Department said the release of 300,000 barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is being made to ensure the region impacted by Hurricane Ida is “able to quickly and easily access the fuel they need to support recovery activities.”

The emergency releases are designed to ease pressure on a system buckling after taking a direct hit from Hurricane Ida. Specifically, the federal government is attempting to make sure that as refineries reopen, they get the oil they need to produce gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. 

The latest release from the SPR, an underground series of caverns along the Gulf Coast, will send oil to a Baton Rouge refinery owned by the Placid Refining Company. This is in addition to the 1.5 million barrels of crude the Energy Department said Thursday will get sent to an ExxonMobil refinery.

The emergency steps come as the majority of gas stations in Baton Rouge and New Orleans are without gas, according to outages compiled by GasBuddy. Roughly half of the gas stations in Lafayette similarly don’t have gas.

The Energy Department reiterated that it expects refiners to “prioritize” sending gasoline and other refined products to the region hit by Hurricane Ida. The agency also hinted at potential further action by saying it remains committed to these efforts.

President Biden called on insurance companies to fill claims for those affected by Hurricane Ida, telling those gathered Friday in a suburban neighborhood decimated by the Category 4 storm, “we’re putting as much pressure as we can.”

“Reports suggest that some insurance companies may deny coverage for limited assistance unless the homeowner was under a mandatory evacuation order,” Biden said from LaPlace, Louisiana. “And so, you paid your insurance premiums, you’re supposed to get payments for additional living expenses in case of an emergency, while the insurance companies are saying no, no, no, we won’t pay you what we owe. Well, we’re putting as much pressure as we can.”

“No one fled this killer storm because they were looking for a vacation or road trip — so, folks, they left their home because they left and they felt that they had to flee the risk of death. There’s nothing voluntary about that,” Biden added. “I’m calling on private insurance companies, don’t hide behind the fine print and technicalities, pay what you owe your customers, cover temporary housing costs and natural disasters, and help those in need. That’s what we should all be doing now.”

The President, who toured damage from the storm before speaking, outlined the recovery resources his administration has offered to communities affected by Ida, pledging, “we’re going to make sure we have someone coming through here, going door-to-door letting people know what’s available to them right now, because they can’t connect online, and with the governor, mayors, and members of Congress, community leaders and the folks that are here, we’ve been working together to deliver millions of meals and liters of water.” 

“I know y’all are frustrated about how long it takes to restore power—it’s dangerous work,“ Biden said, adding that 25,000 linemen have been working in Louisiana to restore power, and two of them have died in the process.

The President said his administration was deploying “more federal resources, including hundreds of generators, and there’s more to come, to restore power as fast as we possibly can, faster than anything happened during Katrina.”

President Biden pointed to the damage caused by Hurricane Ida in Louisiana, saying it was time to pass his “Build Back Better” plan as global warming increases the chances of catastrophic weather events. 

“Hurricane Ida is another reminder that we need to be prepared for the next hurricane and superstorms that are going to come and they’re going to come more frequently and more ferociously,” warned Biden, speaking from LaPlace, Louisiana.

He then touted his “Build Back Better” plan, which includes his infrastructure proposal, saying it was time to modernize roads, bridges, sewers, drainages, power grids and transition lines “to make sure they are more resilient.”

“We have just got to remember, not only do we have to build back, we have to build back better than it was before… so when another superstorm comes, it’s not the damage done,” he said.

Speaking on Thursday, hours after remnants of Hurricane Ida caused dangerous flash floods and tornadoes across the Northeast and as wildfires burned their way across the western US, Biden also said he planned to press Congress to take further action on his infrastructure proposals to better prepare the nation for future natural disasters and the effects of climate change.

“The past few days of Hurricane Ida and the wildfires in the West and the unprecedented flash floods in New York and New Jersey is yet another reminder that these extreme storms and the climate crisis are here,” Biden said Thursday.

President Biden said he has worked with Gov. John Bel Edwards to ensure that Louisiana residents have received “$500 in their bank accounts once they’ve contacted us” as part of the ongoing effort to support those recovering from Hurricane Ida.

This amount is part of the $100 million provided to the state in the wake of the storm, Biden said from LaPlace, Louisiana, this afternoon.

“At the governor’s request, FEMA’s helping with …. transitional sheltering assistance, meaning a place for you to be able to safely sleep at night and be secure and covering your hotel bill you racked up because you couldn’t stay at home during a hurricane or because your home is not livable now,” Biden said.

Biden directed people in need to visit disasterassistance.gov for more information.

President Biden delivered brief remarks during a briefing in LaPlace, Louisiana, telling responders on site at St. John Parish’s Emergency Operations Center, “This storm has been incredible, not only here, but all up the East Coast.”

“I’ve been spending time, been talking to the governor a lot, but in the meantime, also with governors in my state of Delaware and Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, where there are more deaths than you had here—I hope that doesn’t change, the number of lost lives,” Biden said.

Biden touted his administration’s response to Ida, which made landfall in Louisiana as a Category 4 storm this weekend, but acknowledged there is “a lot more work to do.”

“We also know there’s a heck of a lot of more work to do, and that’s why we’re here today, and my message today is I think what we’re all seeing, and I’m getting the same response from my Republican friends here that are in the Congress, is that there’s nothing political about this, it’s just simply about saving lives and getting people back up and running, and we’re in this together, and so we’re not going to leave any community behind, rural, city, coastal, and I promise to have your backs until this gets done,” he said.

Biden said his trip to Louisiana was “to hear directly from you all what specific problems you’ve been dealing with,” acknowledging, “We’re frustrated, I know you gotta be frustrated about the restoration of power, and I understand that.” 

“We’re moving as fast as we can to keep gas moving at the pumps, I’ve authorized going into the strategic petroleum reserve, but I know still there’s work to do in this area, and I’ve instructed my team to ensure that we have all hands on deck to make sure that happens,” he said, while touting up to $100 million in direct assistance to the state.

He also emphasized the need for resilience in reconstruction efforts, pointing to his administration’s infrastructure package and $3.5 trillion reconciliation package.

“One of the things that I hope you keep an eye on, I mean everyone keep an eye on, is that, you know, I got kind of, not beat up, but criticized when I was running for office, we gotta build back better,” Biden said.

“Things have changed so drastically in terms of the environment, we’ve already crossed certain thresholds, we can’t build back roads, highways, bridges, anything to what it was before, we gotta build back to what it is now, what’s needed now. And I know the heads of the energy companies understand this really well, we have a significant piece of legislation, both the infrastructure bill and a budget thing, a reconciliation bill, that calls for significant investment in being able to deal with what is about to com,” he continued. 

“And so we have, it seems to me we can save a whole lot of money and a whole lot of pain, pain for our constituents if, when we build back, we build it back in a better way, and it will create—and I realize I’m selling as I’m talking too, but it will create really significant good-paying jobs, not $15 an hour jobs, but jobs at prevailing wage that generate economic growth,” the President added.

Westchester County police are investigating a fifth storm-related fatality, county executive George Latimer said

Latimer, speaking at a news conference, said the man’s body was found at Saxon Woods Park, and authorities believe he may have drowned after getting out of his car which became stranded after being swept away by flood waters. 

Latimer said that most deaths in the county took place among people who were traveling and trying to get home on the night of the storm.  

Earlier on Friday, Latimer said he was in Yonkers with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, surveying damage sustained to homes in the area due to the storm. He also surveyed damage in Mamaroneck Village with Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand as well as the governor. Some streets in the county are still impassable and residents are advised to use detour routes to get around, Latimer said.  

“When we talk about making ourselves hardened against climate change realities, it is a much bigger task – a task too big for the county government to do alone or even the county or the state and the local governments together—we need the presence of the federal government,” Latimer said. 

Latimer said he’s working with state and local leaders in allocating federal funding to residents in need. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is currently in Westchester County surveying damage sustained by Ida to determine eligibility for federal funds. 

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf attributed the severe weather that spurred tornadoes and flooding in his state to climate change.

“What I’ve seen in my last seven years are these localized storms, storms that actually in some cases occur outside of flood plains and that cause a lot of damage. You know, it’s climate change,” Wolf told CNN’s Pete Muntean while surveying damage in Fort Washington, which experienced an EF-2 tornado with winds up to 130 mph.

There have been at least 45 deaths in six states — Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia — after the remnants of Ida tore through the Northeast. Four occurred in Pennsylvania.

Storms are getting stronger as the planet gets hotter, scientists say. Hurricanes are made more intense by the warming ocean and are moving more slowly over land.

“We’ve seen this increasingly around the commonwealth. … There is no area of Pennsylvania that has been unaffected, at least during my term in office — seven years now — to this kind of devastation, and it’s just very sad,” Wolf said.

“Unfortunately, we’re the weather’s unwilling victims,” he added.  

Wolf said there needs to be a “robust conversation” on how to combat climate change.

“The more you see this kind of thing — the indiscriminate and intense nature of the storms — I’m not sure how you can sit on the sidelines and say we don’t need to do anything. … We’ve got to come to grips with the idea that we can’t ignore this,” he said.

Watch:

A gas station worker in New Orleans said some people have pulled guns on him while waiting in long lines to get gasoline after Hurricane Ida ripped through the area this week.

Abdullah Hummus, the gas station owner’s son, sat with a gun himself as he oversaw residents filling up gasoline tanks.

“There have been multiple incidents where people have pulled guns on us for very belligerent reasons — waiting in line too long, thinking we’re ripping them off. We’re actually one of the only gas stations in the greater New Orleans area that’s charging the exact same prices that we’ve been charging before the hurricane, during the pandemic,” Hummus told CNN’s Adrienne Broaddus.

He said that right after Hurricane Ida passed, a person tried to shoot through the window to rob the store, but they have bulletproof glass.  

“We’ve been giving out free ice, free water, multiple days and we’re trying our best to help the community in every aspect that we can because that’s what New Orleans is about: resilience, helping each other out, mutual relationship. … We’re really trying our best to keep peace and order, but our best is not enough right now,” he added.

The station never ran out of gas overall, but only has premium right now. Every few hours, a truck comes with a load of regular gasoline, he said, and police need to escort it off the highway. The gas station’s generators have shut off every few hours, and it takes about 30 minutes to restart them.

Watch the interview here:

New York City is working on rolling out financial aid for homeowners and small businesses impacted by Ida, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced in a news conference Friday.

The aid will be coordinated by way of pop-up, one-stop shops, agencies on the ground, and a small business hotline, he said, but didn’t mention when the financial aid will be made available to those who need it.

“It’s going to be a variety of tools that are made available, direct financial aid for homeowners and business owners, legal assistance,” de Blasio said. 

“We’re going to work closely with the federal government and the state.”

Around 4.5 million people in the Northeast remain under flood warnings this morning, with another two million people under a flood advisory.

The bulk of the warnings are posted for northeastern New Jersey and also dotted around swollen rivers throughout the Northeast where ongoing major flooding continues. Advisories are located in southern Connecticut, where minor flooding remains.

Nearly a dozen river gauges remain in major or moderate flood stage in northern New Jersey Friday morning, with most locations cresting today, if not already receding. Some rivers in the Northeast are forecast to remain above flood stage into the weekend.

According to the National Weather Service, a flood warning is issued when flooding is imminent or occurring. A flood advisory is issued when flooding is not expected to be bad enough to issue a warning. However, it may cause significant inconvenience, and if caution is not exercised, it could lead to situations that may threaten life or property.

Following historic rainfall across New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio on Friday announced the NYC Climate-Driven Rain Response, a series of initiatives the city will undertake to help the city deal with extreme weather.

The initiative will focus on warning systems, protecting people living in basement-level homes and the creation of a 30-day extreme weather response task force, which will put together a new set of protocols and policies by climate week, he said.

The mayor said New Yorkers didn’t know they’d experience “shocking and unprecedented rainfall.” 

“We had a one-hour period Wednesday night that set the all-time record for a single hour in the history, the recorded history of New York City … We had set a previous record a few weeks earlier for the most rainfall in an hour, (but) this new record is much, much higher,” he said. 

The system of warnings will include…

This system can include first responders going door-to-door and getting people out of their homes, de Blasio said. 

People living in basement apartments may expect to receive specific cell phone alerts ahead of storms about the vulnerabilities they face and to be evacuated from their homes, he added.

De Blasio did not say how soon these changes will be implemented.

“We’re going to, in particular, focus on a different kind of warning, a much more severe kind of warning and a much more severe set of actions,” said de Blasio. “We now understand that this kind of radical, sudden change in weather is beyond the understanding, beyond the reach of any of our typical measuring tools. Things are happening that projections can’t track with accuracy or consistency, which means we have to assume the worst in a way we never have before.”

Ohio will deploy 250 National Guard soldiers to Louisiana to help the region hit by Hurricane Ida, according to a statement from the governor’s office. 

The statement from the office of Gov. Mike DeWine said the soldiers were requested by Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards.   

The soldiers will be placed on active duty on Sept. 8 and will be deployed for roughly three weeks. While there, soldiers “will be providing general-purpose support during the relief mission,” the statement added.

A majority of the National Guard will be activated from the 112th Transportation Battalion (North Canton), the 1485th Transportation Company (Coshocton), and the 1486th Transportation Company (Mansfield), the statement said. 

Ohio joins several other states, including North Carolina and Missouri, that have sent National Guard troops to help the region ravaged by the Category 4 storm. 

President Biden is traveling to Louisiana today, five days after Hurricane Ida made landfall in the state. He’s scheduled to arrive in New Orleans just after 1 p.m. ET.

The President will first travel to St. John Parish’s Emergency Operations Center in LaPlace, Louisiana, for a briefing with local leaders at 2:15 p.m. ET, according to the White House schedule. After that, he’ll tour a neighborhood in LaPlace and speak about his administration’s response to the hurricane.

Around 5 p.m. ET, Biden will take an aerial tour of communities damaged in Hurricane Ida, including Laffite, Grand Isle, Port Fourchon and Lafourche Parish.

He’ll finish his day by meeting with local leaders in Galliano, Louisiana.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced a $10 million dollar grant program for small businesses affected by Ida.

“If you have been crushed and you can prove it, you’re eligible,” Murphy said Friday, encouraging business owners to document damages with photos and receipts.

“Help is coming, I know this is the absolute thing that you all needed in the small business community, probably any of us needed, after a year and a half of long struggle against the pandemic.”

The money will be made available through the New Jersey Economic Development authority and will provide anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000 per business, he said.

Additional details on the grant program will be available next week.

Cleco Power has released a restoration timeline for customers to get power back, five days after Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana. 

The company estimated that many impacted areas will have power by Friday, according to a post on Facebook. Many subdivisions in St. Tammany Parish had their power restored on Thursday, the company said.  

Cleco Power said “If you do not see your area listed, we do not have information available for the area at this time.”

Cleco released the following estimates:

Abita Springs: 

Mandeville:

Covington: 

Madisonville:

These subdivisions have an estimated time of return of today:

Goodbee:

These areas have an estimated time of return of today:

Lacombe:

The Federal Emergency Declaration request for 14 downstate counties across New York following widespread damage caused by Hurricane Ida’s remnants has been approved by President Biden, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced at a news conference Friday morning.

“I’m very happy that’s going to bring in resources to help with evacuation and shelter support. We’re also working with FEMA, the White House, and our delegation to ensure that we get everything that New Yorkers need.” she said.

CNN reported earlier that Biden approved an emergency declaration for New York and New Jersey late Thursday night after at least 39 people died in those two states alone as remnants of Hurricane Ida unleashed deadly flooding from Virginia to New England.

Facing a shortage of fuel after Hurricane Ida, the Environmental Protection Agency is issuing a second emergency fuel waiver for Louisiana and Mississippi.

The EPA said late Thursday it decided to further cut red tape because of an “extreme and unusual” fuel situation impacting the supply of gasoline after the Category 4 storm. About two-thirds of the gas stations in New Orleans and Baton Rouge are without gas, according to GasBuddy.

The agency said the waiver only applies in Louisiana and Mississippi and will allow for the production, sale and distribution of winter gasoline, before the addition of ethanol. The EPA cited requests from the energy industry for this regulatory relief.

This is on top of the emergency fuel waivers announced by the EPA on Monday to improve fuel supply in the region. 

Both waivers deal with environmental regulations that under normal circumstances require the use of low volatility gasoline during the summer months to limit ozone pollution.

In short, these steps are aimed at further easing the supply crunch caused by Hurricane Ida.

Satellite images from Maxar Technologies captured the flooding devastation remnants of Ida brought to parts of New Jersey.

Here’s the before-and-after images of TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater Township, New Jersey:

And here’s what the roads and railroad tracks in Manville, New Jersey, looked like before and after the flooding:

At least 25 people have died and six are missing in New Jersey after the remnants of Hurricane Ida pummeled cities in the East, Alyana Alfaro, Gov. Phil Murphy’s press secretary, told CNN Friday morning.

That marks an increase of two deaths from what the governor reported Thursday and raised the regional death toll to 48.

Details about the two deaths and six missing people are expected to be released by Murphy’s office later in the day, Alfaro said.

About 4.5 million people in the Northeast remained under flood warnings Friday morning, mostly in northeastern New Jersey, as rainwater flows into larger creeks, streams, and rivers. Some rivers in the Northeast are forecast to remain above flood stage into the weekend, though many are already receding. 

President Biden approved an emergency declaration for New York and New Jersey late Thursday night after at least 39 people died in those two states alone as remnants of Hurricane Ida unleashed deadly flooding from Virginia to New England.

Of the dozens killed in the East, many died in flooded homes – including many in flooded basements – or while overtaken by water in or outside their vehicles.

About 4.5 million people in the Northeast remained under flood warnings Friday morning, mostly in northeastern New Jersey, as rainwater flows into larger creeks, streams, and rivers. Some rivers in the Northeast are forecast to remain above flood stage into the weekend, though many are already receding.

“We have to start from scratch as we are mourning,” Amrita Bhagwandin of Queens, New York, told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on Thursday. “We have to see how we can move on in the most graceful way here. Because this– if you see the situation here, it’s very unsafe, very unlivable. Death is upon us.”

Bhagwandin’s home sustained serious damage in the flood, but her biggest heartbreak was losing her neighbors, a mother and a son, she said.

Bhagwandin’s husband, Sahadeo, said that their neighborhood has had flooding issues before. And officials may come through during times of disaster, but the residents there need more action.

“We need a lot of help in this neighborhood and over the years we have been neglected. I came here in 2003, and since 2003 to 2021, we’re getting flooding and nothing has been done,” Sahadeo Bhagwandin said. “We have several projects that were completed in this block but it is not resolving the issue we have.”

In addition to the 39 deaths in New York and New Jersey, four deaths were attributed to the storm in Pennsylvania, and one each in Maryland, Connecticut and Virginia.

President Biden is headed to Louisiana on Friday to survey damage from Hurricane Ida, after almost a week of the deadly storm ravaging the eastern half of the United States. 

The White House has said Biden would survey storm damage and meet with state and local officials. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday that the President would travel to New Orleans and is expected to meet with Louisiana Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, among other officials.

Since the Category 4 Hurricane plowed through the Gulf Coast over the weekend, there have been at least five confirmed deaths tied to the hurricane in Mississippi and Louisiana. Entire neighborhoods were windswept, flooded and damaged. 

In the last few days, the storm pummeled the East Coast, triggering flash floods and tornadoes across the Northeast. There have been at least 45 deaths in Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia caused by floods.