Biden pledges extensive aid to tornado-affected states | News from Germany on world events

US President Joe Biden called the tornadoes that hit a number of American states the largest in the history of the United States and assured the regions affected by the disaster to provide them with unlimited assistance. At the same time, he called on the Americans to unite. The American leader said this on Saturday, December 11, in Wilmington (Delaware).

“This is probably one of the largest tornadoes in our history,” Biden said. “This is a tragedy, and we still do not know how many people died, and the total amount of damage.”

“I promise you that the federal authorities will find a way to provide everything that is required,” the head of the White House assured, addressing directly to the affected states. “We’ll get through this together,” Joe Biden said and added, “This is one of those times when we are not Democrats or Republicans. Sounds like an exaggeration, but this is reality. We are all Americans.”

Kentucky declared emergency situation

The President of the United States announced the introduction of an emergency situation (ES) in the state of Kentucky in the southeastern United States, which was hit hardest by the tornado. Due to this, federal aid will be allocated there on an expedited basis.

Kentucky Governor Andy Besheer fears that in his state alone, the death toll will exceed 100.

The amount of destruction in Kentucky has surpassed all initial concerns, Besheer said during a visit to the disaster area. According to him, the tornadoes left behind a line of destruction 200 miles (320 km) long: on their way everything disappeared – houses, shops, industrial enterprises.

According to the National Weather Service, on the night of Saturday, December 11 (local time), it received 36 reports of tornadoes in six states – Kentucky, Illinois, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas and Mississippi.

A series of tornadoes is still the last natural disaster in a series of natural disasters that have recently become more frequent in the United States. President Biden considers them a consequence of climate change, the fight against which the American leader has made one of his policy priorities.

See also:

Natural disasters of summer 2021 in Russia – the consequences of climate change
Yakutia: forests burned for three months
Climate change is not just about rising average temperatures. Global warming leads to an imbalance in the weather on the entire planet, and this gives rise to a variety of natural disasters. Summer 2021 was frighteningly rich in such excesses in various countries, including Russia. The fires in Yakutia became the largest disaster: dry forests, due to the lack of rain, burned from the end of May to September.

Natural disasters of summer 2021 in Russia – the consequences of climate change
Moscow: orange level of danger
Due to global warming, blocking anticyclones are more and more often formed. In winter, they lead to long frosts, in summer – to heat. In the second half of June in Moscow, the temperature turned out to be 7-10 degrees above normal and reached 35 degrees, so the penultimate orange level of weather hazard was in effect for ten days. In mid-July, the heat returned, and the fifth temperature record for the summer was set.

Natural disasters of summer 2021 in Russia – the consequences of climate change
Sochi: two floods in a month
Sochi: garbage collection instead of a beach holiday. On July 4-5, in the main resort city of Russia and in part of the Krasnodar Territory, due to volley showers, the monthly norm of precipitation was recorded in less than a day. Overflowing the banks of the river flooded houses and boarding houses, roads were damaged by mudflows. Three weeks later, on July 23, everything repeated: another monthly norm, again flooding and deaths.

Natural disasters of summer 2021 in Russia – the consequences of climate change
Petersburg: 8 records and a sandstorm
The first month and a half of summer in the northern capital of Russia was abnormally hot: during this time, eight temperature records were set in St. Petersburg: five in June, which, like in Moscow, turned out to be the warmest in the history of meteorological observations, and three in July. And on July 15, in the city on the Neva, a previously extremely rare weather phenomenon in these latitudes, such as a sandstorm, was observed.

Natural disasters of summer 2021 in Russia – the consequences of climate change
Yakutsk has nothing to breathe
Throughout the summer, forests in Eastern Siberia continued to burn, and by mid-August the smoke from the fires completely enveloped Yakutsk. The smoke, harmful to human health, turned out to be so strong that August 13 in the capital and a number of regions of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) had to be declared a non-working day, and dozens of flights were canceled at the local airport due to poor visibility.

Natural disasters of summer 2021 in Russia – the consequences of climate change
Amur region: not flooding, but flooding
Since the end of July, when a bridge on the Trans-Siberian Railway collapsed in Transbaikalia after rains, and throughout August there have been official reports of “floods” and “flooding” in the Russian Far East. In fact, in the Amur region, due to heavy downpours, which were so expected at the fires in Yakutia, there was a real flood. This confirmed the decision to declare an emergency situation on a federal scale in the region on August 13.

Natural disasters of summer 2021 in Russia – the consequences of climate change
Ural and Kama region: drought, heat, fires
In the second half of August, the abnormal heat came to the Urals and the Kama region, reaching 38 degrees. The smoke from the forest fires reached Yekaterinburg, on August 24 the federal highway to Perm had to be temporarily blocked. However, the regional emergency regime in the Sverdlovsk region was introduced on July 22 due to a severe drought. Farmers already then fully felt what climate change was leading to.

Natural disasters of summer 2021 in Russia – the consequences of climate change
Kerch *: showers after a long drought
Due to the imbalance in the climate, the uniform distribution of precipitation is disturbed: in some regions the rains do not stop, others suffer from drought. After two dry years that sharply exacerbated water supply problems, abnormally heavy rainfall caused flooding in the Russian-annexed Crimea. In one day, June 17, a two-month norm of precipitation fell in Kerch.

Natural disasters of summer 2021 in Russia – the consequences of climate change
Yalta *: three-month rainfall
The next day, June 18, a three-month norm of precipitation fell in Yalta, after which the streets and beaches of the city were cleared of rubble for a long time. But the abnormal rains and flooding in the annexed Crimea did not end there: on June 26, half of the monthly norm poured out on Yalta, on July 4, the city was partially again under water, while the two-month norm fell on the Bakhchisarai region.

Natural disasters of summer 2021 in Russia – the consequences of climate change
* From the editor
Crimea is a Ukrainian territory annexed by Russia. At the moment, the peninsula is controlled by the Russian authorities, who, like the residents of Crimea and Russian tourists, are faced with the problem of floods. Therefore, photographs from Kerch and Yalta are included in the photo gallery about the natural disasters that Russians suffered in the summer of 2021.
Author: Andrey Gurkov