President Biden arrived in California on Thursday and joined Gov. Gavin Newsom and U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla on a helicopter tour of areas along the Central Coast battered by winter storms.
The president traveled to the state after issuing an emergency declaration for California that authorizes the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief and offering federal aid for recovery efforts through a separate major disaster declaration in the six counties of Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Merced, Sacramento and Santa Cruz.
The governor has praised the Biden administration for its support of California, which sustained an estimated $1 billion in “extensive” damage from a string of storms that started on Dec. 26. The rains ultimately dropped more than 17 inches in San Francisco and 20 inches in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
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