Biden surveys Colorado wildfire damage, comforts victims

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE and PATTY NIEBERG

LOUISVILLE, Colo. (AP) — Offering hugs and humor, President Joe Biden comforted Coloradans grappling with rebuilding homes and businesses destroyed last week by a rare wind-whipped, winter fire that burned through a pair of heavily populated suburbs between Denver and Boulder.

One victim was identified Friday and one person remained unaccounted for out of some 35,000 forced from their homes.

Biden, and his wife, Jill, arrived in the Harper Lake neighborhood of Louisville on Friday afternoon to survey the damage, passing the scorched remnants of homes next to damaged structures still standing. They walked along a street where homes burned to their concrete foundations, meeting residents and local officials who have been overseeing the response and recovery.

Speaking at a recreation center in Louisville, Biden praised the “incredible courage” of the people who lost their homes in the fire and pledged the full support of the federal government to help rebuild.



President Joe Biden greets first responders as he tours a neighborhood in Louisville, Colo., Friday, Jan. 7, 2022, that was impacted by the recent wildfire. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-joe-biden-lifestyle-travel-colorado-a8a08dd75584d0473445cd1e90a348f8

[NanceGreggs]

1. If only Colorado ...

... had swept the floors of its 24.5 million acres of forest, this tragedy could have been averted.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

2. Comforting victims? Being human? Showing grace? But what about his approval ratings??

Only reason the irrelevant polling is what it is is cause corporate media is in a both sides equal rut it can’t or refuses on purpose to get out of….likely latter.

When one side is fascist and one side is…not…the rut running keeps profits in the green.

And cannot have one side go down the toilet, even if fascists, cause America only has two sides, D and R. So obviously the ass media has no choice. Fascisism ok, democracy also ok.

Makes things very tidy when all you got or ever had was both siderism..

[twodogsbarking]

3. Joe is there because he wanted to show support for people.

He could have done anything yesterday but this is what he wanted to do.

[Marthe48]

4. Might not be the right place to post

or appropriate. Something just occurred to me, though and thought I'd ask.

I live near the Ohio River, in the Muskingum River Watershed. Our house is well away from the rivers, on higher ground, so we don't have to worry about flooding. But if we wanted to get flood insurance, we can only get it through FEMA, and the entire community must be compliant, or FEMA won't offer flood insurance (at least that is how it was when we checked a few years ago) We had some bad floods from Hurricane Ivan in 2004. After that the Muskingum River Watershed Association made all of the counties in the watershed area add a tax to property owners for maintenance of the watershed, didn't matter where our houses are, we have to pay because other people choose to build in a flood plain and their position makes it necessary to do more maintenance along the rivers to lower the risk of destructive floods. After historic floods along the Missouri River around 2011, FEMA raised the cost of its flood insurance from about $200/yr to around $2000/yr. We were thinking about buying a house in Marietta and soon realized we could afford the mortgage or the flood insurance, but not both, so we stayed where we were. After a derecho hit Marietta in 2012, we learned that our home insurance had added a $1200.00 deductible for wind damage, not because of wind damage in the Ohio Valley, but hurricane damage along the Atlantic coast.

I'm glad, really glad, that President and First Lady Biden are visiting areas devastated by disasters, but when I read that Pres. Biden said the government will help them rebuild, I wondered if there will be financial consequences, such as insurance increases, and other costs, for home owners far away from the areas of disasters. My taxes and insurance keep going up, to cover costs of disasters elsewhere and to reduce costs to my (haha) insurance company.

I saw a post on DU and FB about what Democrats want when they pay taxes. One of the last things on the list is about wanting the wealthy not to pay for everything, but to pay their fair share. I thought of a spin on that wish-if the wealthy won't pay their fair share, at least have the courtesy to keep your hands off of the money taxpayers contribute, so that when there are disasters like we are seeing, there is more money available to help people get back on their feet. Just think, if corporate welfare didn't exist, how much more money there would be for people who had lost their homes, or had other struggles.

[CrispyQ]

6. Yeah, we have socialism for the corporations & the rich, but capitalism for the rest of us.

It sucks, but the people who can change the rules benefit from the current rules.

[Cassidy]

12. We will all be paying increasing disaster insurance rates because disasters are increasing.

FEMA, under Democratic administrations, has been trying to make the insurance that they provide more equitable. That is, specifically making people in known flood plains pay more. A 2016 NRDC analysis revealed that 2100 homes had been flooded and rebuilt more than 10 times since 1978. Unfortunately, Congress keeps prohibiting FEMA from raising the rates appropriately at the appropriate locations because that would mean people could no longer afford to live in those places, i.e. exactly what Mother Nature is telling us. So, the rest of us are saddled with paying for some people to keep rebuilding in unsuitable locations.

This probably sounds totally unsympathetic to your concern. I do not mean it that way. It is just one more way that our failure to acknowledge and plan for climate chaos/ climate change is costing us all so much more in the medium and long term.

I live about 30 miles from the Colorado Front Range location where these homes burned. The interminable, sunny, warm, cloudless sky these past 6 months has given us the most beautiful fall in memory. The maple leaves were red for weeks. Usually they turn brown from the cold, snow, and wind, trashing the leaves before they can display much color. To those of us who understood, it was a terrifying beauty.

[summer_in_TX]

15. I'd double-check on flood insurance.

It would surprise me to find that with climate change, that it's the whole community.

I live in Central Texas. It's a flash flood alley here, but we aren't in the flood plain at all. However, twice it has rained so hard and fast that it pooled up on the front porch and came under the door. We had some floor damage and spent some time drying out each time. We got flood insurance after that. Where we are it was around $500, I think.

I'm with you on the rich holding off and letting those in need use FEMA funds first. But they want to be made whole too, and they tend to know the ropes or learn them quicker than those without means, so I'm not hopeful.

[Marthe48]

16. I have a story

We've had have a river lot in WV, since the 90's, about 1/2 hr from our home. It had a run-down cabin on it which we tried to renovate, but ended up removing. We decided to try to put a mobile home on it, roomier than a camper. We found a used mobile home, and at every step, we asked about complince, taxes, every aspect that occurred to us. After we got the mobile home placed, we'd see paper notices from the county stuck in the door. The last one was pretty grim, so we got in touch with them. We were told that the mobile home had to be removable, or raised 8 ft above the 100 year flood plain. At the time, the man who was leaving the notices said that the whole county had to be in compliance, or FEMA would not give insurance to anyone. This was between 2005-2010. We ended up getting a 36ft camper. 2017 and 2019, the river rose high enough that even our lot was under water. I kept the land and gave the camper to someone who loves the lot and maintains it. In Marietta, a relative owns a building of which one corner is in the 100 year flood plain, and he was in court for quite awhile trying to get that building exempt from the local flood plain laws. That hapoened around the same time as our experience with the river lot.

When I mentioned the crack about the wealthy, I was meaning corporate welfare at large. If someone needs a helping hand, I wouldn't feel good denying them. If there wasn't corporate welfare, there would be more money available from tax sources to give back to the people who are paying it in.

I sympathize with your water woes. I have some drainage problems here. I got most of it solved a couple years ago, but if the rain comes from a certain direction, I get water in the basement. Hoping to get that fixed this year.

[evemac]

5. I just saw a friend Thursday who is one of those who not only lost her home

But her mother who lives across the street from her lost hers as well. It is overwhelming for those in this area as I am sure it is for anyone who loses everything in a natural disaster.
I am so glad that Biden is here to offer support. It will be a long road for so many.

[CrispyQ]

7. I'm so sorry for your friend & her mother.

I know several who were evacuated but only one whose house was touched by fire. They had damage to their garage & one side of the house & are so thankful that is all. We hike out at Coalton all the time & on a good year the plains are pretty dry, but this year they were crisp. It must have been horrific to watch how fast that fire spread across those open fields.

I simply can't imagine losing everything you own. I sit at my desk & look at all the stuff around me & that's just my desk. The Camera had an article that because home prices have gone up so much in the past few years, many homeowners might be under-insured. Coupled with supply chain issues, rebuilding will probably be expensive & take a long time.

[Marthe48]

9. Such sad news for your friend and mother

My friend's sister lost her house in a fire, just before Christmas. In WV. Devastating loss, even if no one dies in the fire.

[L. Coyote]

8. A heartwarming story about @POTUS

Link to tweet

[Bayard]

10. Copying and keeping that story

Thanks!

[Bayard]

11. Offering hugs and humor,

Not paper towels. And I bet it wasn't just to Democrat citizens.

[colorado_ufo]

13. Love this man.

He is the polar opposite of, and an antidote to, the tragedy of TFG.

[Moebym]

14. In before WaPo writes a piece on how

Traveling to CO to comfort victims and assess fire damage is not the best use of POTUS' time.