Biden arrives in California to tour damage from severe storms

U.S. President Joe Biden arrived in California on Thursday to tour areas hit hard by a series of deadly “atmospheric river” storms that inflicted widespread flooding, felled trees and brought mudslides to a state long gripped by extreme drought.
Biden, traveling with the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Deanne Criswell, landed in Santa Clara County, then took off by helicopter for an aerial survey of other storm-stricken locations south of San Francisco.
The president, who on Saturday authorized federal disaster assistance for three hard-hit counties in northern and central California, was greeted at Moffett Federal Airfield by Governor Gavin Newsom and other elected officials.
The itinerary called for at least two stops along the Santa Cruz coast, where flash floods, extreme tides and runoff from local mountains forced thousands of residents to evacuate from low-lying communities.