remain flooded five days after the storm hit. the death toll now at 87. relief efforts also under way. but they re just barely making a dent for the thousands of people who have seen their homes damaged or destroyed and their lives changed forever. i ve lost everything. everything. my life savings. my tools, everything. you hope for the best. yeah. but it s the worst. all the way to the ceilings. ceiling fans are down, walls gone. a half foot of mud everywhere. . nobody could get a hold of us. we couldn t get a hold of anyone else. it was just you felt like you were in, you know, you were the only person in the world. heartbreaking. plus, we re watching president biden, who is headed to puerto rico later this hour, to survey damage from hurricane fiona, which hit two weeks ago. he will travel to florida on wednesday. opening statements in a trial that could end up as a blueprint for prosecutions stemming from january 6th. stewart rhodes, the head of the far righ
people who are still in their homes or who need access to resources, we pre-positioned millions of gallons of water and millions of meals to make sure we can get those resources to people. and, again, we re going door to door to make sure we re able to register people for assistance, make sure that they are brought to safety if necessary. and if they do need additional assistance, again, that disasterassistance.gov is a good place to go to register for assistance. it really is an ongoing process. we are trying to make sure we are meeting people where they are and providing that access to resources that they need. and administrator chris well said the u.s. is prepared to spend an unprecedented amount of federal disaster aid post ian. we also recognize fema is managing storm responses in florida, north carolina, south carolina and puerto rico. how far can federal aid go?
deciding whether to stay or go? i think that s just nervous energy probably, saying things like that on twitter. but i m confident and i do think fema is fully focused. i think the governors, who are in these storms, they are the principal leaders in storm responses. not the president. what happens inside those states by constitution goes to the senior elected official and they re in charge of what happens in those states. and from what i ve seen, those governors are on it. they are mobilizing the national guard. they are executing agreements with other states to bring additional guard assets in and they ve opened a way tore federal troops to start deploying and be prepared to come in, everything from ships to search and rescue helicopters all the way from alaska. so the quarterback of this show is not the president, it s the governor of the state. they ve got to ask for what they
now it s heck of a job but don t blame out of power folks or patience with northeasterners. millions are without power. this storm that wreaked havoc on region is about to unleash voter backlash at the polls. steve, what do you think? reporter: it s interesting a tale of two storm responses. i thought president obama was very strong in the first 48 hours. it appeared that everything was going well. that this was being dealt with very confidently and getting relief to the people that neededed. you saw governor christie said and several people were dealing with the storm. that was the first 48 hours. now, we are finding the last 72 hours the people i talk to in new jersey and you showed the devastation of staten island, they are not getting the relief.