Story at a glance
- In New Jersey, 25 residents perished as a result of flash flooding and tornadoes brought on by Hurricane Ida.
- The storm made landfall in Louisiana last week and moved north to states like New York, Maryland and New Jersey.
- New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) attributed the intensity of Ida to climate change.
On Thursday, President Biden approved a disaster declaration for New Jersey after the state was hit by the remnants of Hurricane Ida earlier this week.
With this order, personnel and resources from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will assist in disaster relief efforts for the affected communities.
The counties approved for federal aid include Atlantic, Bergen, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Essex, Gloucester, Hudson, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Salem, Somerset, Sussex, Union, and Warren.
Speaking on “The Today Show,” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) confirmed 25 residents have died as a result of the flash flooding and at least one confirmed tornado in conjunction with subsequent damage.
Six people have been reported missing.
“We mourn the loss of those lives, and we’re going to clean up, and we’re going to stay together, and we’re going to get back on our feet but it may be a long road,” he said Friday morning.
Parts of the state saw record rainfall, with up to 8 to 10 inches of rain in some areas. Murphy had declared a separate state of emergency for New Jersey prior to Biden’s federal order. With the federal government’s help, New Jersey emergency services could see up to 75 percent of reimbursement for assistance like evacuation and shelter support.
Before tracking northward, Ida slammed Louisiana, prompting widespread power outages before bringing intense flooding to Georgia, the Carolinas, Pennsylvania and New York after it made landfall as a Category 4 storm.
Ida left a trail of devastation, bringing the nationwide death toll to 61 fatalities across eight states subject to hurricane conditions. Forty-six of those deaths were in the northeastern states.
Murphy notably blamed climate change for the ferocity of Hurricane Ida, tweeting that as global temperatures rise, storms like Ida are more likely.
“The unfortunate reality is that sudden and intense rainfall is exactly one of the circumstances that New Jersey’s climate scientists have predicted,” Murphy wrote. He continued to say his administration has invested more than $1 billion in water infrastructure projects and $22 million in flood prevention.
His comments echo the myriad of reports authored by organizations like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and World Meteorological Association that link severe weather incidents, like flooding and hurricanes, to anthropomorphic climate change.
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