President Biden Is Visiting Flood-Ravaged Parts Of Queens Today

QUEENS, NY — President Biden just made a quick stop in Queens, where he’s visiting neighborhoods devastated by deadly flooding last Wednesday, when the remnants of Hurricane Ida pummeled the city with record-rainfall, killing 13 New Yorkers, most of whom were in Queens.

Biden visited southeast Queens for ten minutes this morning, after landing at JFK, and will return in the late afternoon for a two-hour neighborhood tour, a schedule released by the White House shows.

During his first stop in Queens, Biden gave a quick wave and promptly boarded a New Jersey-bound helicopter, without making any remarks or taking questions from the press gathered on the tarmac, AMNY reported.

After visiting New Jersey, the President is planning to return to Queens for a neighborhood tour with Governor Kathy Hochul. The White House release doesn’t specify which neighborhood Biden is planning to visit, but he will likely be in one of the hardest-hit parts of the borough this afternoon, after flying into La Guardia Airport.

Before returning to Washington from Queens, Biden will speak about his Administration’s response to the devastation in Queens. The President’s address comes a day after he made federal funding available for people in Queens affected by last week’s torrential rains and flooding.

As he was departing from the White House on Tuesday morning, Biden told reporters that he’s optimistic about how federal aid will help the devastated areas of New York and New Jersey that he’s visiting today.

"I'm hoping to see the things we're going to be able to fix permanently with the build that we have in [place] for infrastructure,” he said.

The President’s statement comes as Congress works to pass a piece of $3.5 trillion infrastructure legislation.

Congressman Gregory Meeks called the legislation “absolutely crucial” for the neighborhoods hit-hardest by Ida, including his district of southeast Queens, where a mother and son died after they couldn’t escape their flooded apartment.

The family members are two of eight people in Queens who died in their flooded basement-unit homes last week including Yue Lian Chen, 86, in Elmhurst, Darlene Hsu, 48, in Forest Hills, a trio of family members — including a 2-year-old boy, the city's youngest confirmed victim — in Woodside, and three people in Auburndale, according to the NYPD.

One other person in Queens died after a car accident on the Grand Central Parkway near Astoria, the police said.

Wednesday's deadly storm was the city's latest incident of catastrophic flooding amid climate-change-induced natural disasters, which city officials warned will continue to disproportionately impact Queens unless more infrastructure is invested in the borough — especially in southeast Queens.

Critics, however, pushed back against city officials' response to the storm, suggesting that local officials also could have done more to alert New Yorkers about the flooding and ensure their safety.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, who stood by his administration's response, admitted that the city's weather predictions were "made a mockery of in a matter of minutes" and warned New Yorkers to assume the worst going forwards.

"From now on what I think we do is tell New Yorkers to expect the very, very worst. It may sound alarmist at times, but unfortunately, it's being proven by nature," he said. The de Blasio Administration plans to revamp the city's disaster notification system, especially for at-risk residents of basement apartments, and issue more travel bans, during future storms.

Area flooding and a tornado watch in New York City occurred after Post-Tropical Cyclone Ida hit Louisiana last Sunday as a Category 4 hurricane.

The hurricane, which knocked out power to hundreds of thousands in Louisiana and beyond, is now linked to at least 42 deaths, NBC reported.

This is a developing news story, refresh for updates.