Biden highlights climate change as he tours California areas lashed by
storms
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[January 20, 2023]
By Jeff Mason and Steve Gorman
APTOS, Calif. (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden stressed global
warming's role in natural disasters on Thursday as he toured parts of
California after three weeks of deadly "atmospheric river" storms
inflicted floods and mudslides on a state long plagued by drought and
wildfires.
"If anybody doubts that the climate is changing, then they must have
been asleep during the last couple of years," Biden said at Seacliff
State Beach along the Santa Cruz coastline, where a crumpled pier stood
as testament to the destructive force of the recent storms.
"Extreme weather caused by climate change leads to stronger and more
frequent storms, more intense droughts, longer wildfire seasons, all of
which threaten communities all across California," Biden said.
A year ago, Biden made a similar trip to the scene of one of Colorado's
most destructive wildfires on record, a rare winter blaze that he then
called a "code red" reminder of an ominously altered climate.
The president, traveling on Thursday with the head of the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Deanne Criswell, landed at Moffett
Federal Airfield in Santa Clara County, south of San Francisco, and was
greeted by Governor Gavin Newsom and other officials.
Biden then flew by helicopter over other storm-stricken locations in
Santa Cruz County, where flash floods, pounding surf and runoff from
local mountains had forced thousands of residents to evacuate from
low-lying communities.
He also paid a personal visit with residents and business owners along
the waterfront in Capitola, where the picturesque coastal enclave's
wharf lay in ruins, then stopped in nearby Seacliff for brief remarks
promising that FEMA teams would stay "until it's all fixed and done."
Earlier this week Biden signed a major disaster declaration authorizing
federal recovery aid for several northern and central California
counties. He said nearly 150,000 people were under evacuation orders at
the peak of the winter storm crisis, and that some 1,400 remained
displaced as of Thursday.
Criswell told reporters aboard Air Force One to California that early
estimates put property damage at several hundred million dollars
statewide, a figure that was expected to rise as further assessments are
made.
"California has really experienced some unprecedented storms," she said.
CLIMATE EXTREMES
At least 20 deaths have been attributed to a three-week barrage of nine
storms classified as atmospheric rivers - massive airborne currents of
dense moisture funneled in from the Pacific and powered by sprawling
low-pressure systems churning offshore.
Experts say the growing frequency and intensity of such storms,
punctuating extreme drought, are symptoms of human-induced warming of
the planet and make it more difficult to manage California's precious
water supplies while minimizing heightened risks of floods and
wildfires.
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U.S. President Joe Biden talks to Jill
Ealy from Zelda's On the Beach, as he visits a storm-damaged pier in
Capitola, California, U.S., January 19, 2023. REUTERS/Leah Mills
Visiting the disaster stricken state, Biden touted elements of the
massive budget reconciliation bill he signed in August designed to
bolster critical infrastructure such as levees and power grids
against extreme weather, while authorizing $369 billion for climate
and renewable energy initiatives.
Some environmentalists have urged political leaders to move even
more decisively to phase out greenhouse gas emissions generated
primarily from burning fossil fuels, complaining that Biden was
forced to make too many concessions to the oil and gas industry to
clinch his climate deal.
"Californians don't need another Biden disaster tour. We need action
to end the fossil fuels causing the damage," said Nyshie Perkinson,
a spokesperson for the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity.
Torrential downpours since Dec. 26 triggered widespread flooding as
well as hundreds of mudslides, rockfalls and sinkholes across the
state, swallowing cars, forcing road closures and even disrupting
rail travel. Several people died in flooding caused by breached
levees along the Cosumnes River south of the state capital,
Sacramento, during the first wave of the storms.
Landslide hazards mounted by the week from repeated saturation, with
much of the damage greatest in areas below hillsides and canyon
slopes that past wildfires had stripped of vegetation and left
unstable.
The onslaught of showers, and heavy snow in the mountains, was
accompanied by gale-force winds that drove pounding surf into
coastal areas, washing out seaside roads and docks and uprooting
thousands of drought-weakened trees in rain-soaked soil.
The high winds wreaked havoc on the state's power grid, knocking out
electricity to as many as 200,000 Californians at some point during
the storms.
Although highly damaging, the storms eased a historic four-year dry
spell in California, replenishing some badly depleted reservoirs and
the Sierra Nevada snowpack, a critical source of fresh water for the
state.
But experts have warned that most of California remains under
moderate or severe drought conditions with no assurance that there
will be enough precipitation over the remainder of the winter to
sustain drought relief.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason in Aptos, Calif.; Additional reporting by
Trevor Hunnicutt, Katherine Jackson, and Steve Holland in Washington
and Tyler Clifford in New York; Writing and reporting by Steve
Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Gerry Doyle, Josie Kao, Leslie
Adler and Simon Cameron-Moore)
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