Monday 3 October 2022 09:54 PM Biden tells Puerto Rico 'all of America is with you' after Hurricane Fiona= trends now

President Joe Biden assured the people of Puerto Rico on Monday that 'all of America is with you' as the island struggles to cope with the damage from Hurricane Fiona.

'We came here in person to show that we're with you. All of America is with you as you receive and recover and rebuild,' he said during a visit to Ponce, Puerto Rico, with first lady Jill Biden and FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell.

Biden vowed to deliver quick assistance to the island, where tens of thousands of people still don't have power after Fiona struck the island on Sept. 18.

'We work together to help rebuild Puerto Rico and I mean, rebuild it all. And rebuild it in a resilient way so you know when the storms come again, which they will, they're not having the damage they caused before,' he said.

He noted he was 'confident' that he can meet Governor Pedro Pierluisi's request to extend major disaster declaration for 180 days.

Power has been restored to about 90% of the U.S. territory of 3.2 million people, 44% of whom live below the poverty line. But that leaves about 137,000 without power.

Meanwhile, Jill Biden joined volunteers in packing up bags of supplies when the Bidens visited a volunteer center at a local school.

At the center, groceries and household goods — 10 pound sacks of yellow onions, cuties, garlic, boxed juice, rice, nuts, ground corn, chickpeas, and cases of bottled water — were gathered in white plastic shopping bags and arrayed atop long tables covered in red and blue tablecloths.

In route to that stop, the Bidens' motorcade saw some protesters as it made its way through Ponce. 'Biden Go Home,' one sign read. 

But the president, in his remarks, told the crowd he felt an infinity with the territory, noting his home state of Delaware had a large population of minorities, including Puerto Ricans.  Wilmington, Del., has a large Puerto Rican population as does the nearby city of Philadelphia.

'I come from a little state - a little state of Delaware,' Biden said. 'But we have - in very relative terms - large Puerto Rican population in Delaware - relative to our population.'

'I was sort of raised in the Puerto Rican community at home politically. And so we came here for a long time, both for business and pleasure,' he said of his family.