Biden visits Mayfield, Princeton, Dawson Springs today

President Biden will fly into western Kentucky today for a personal visit Mayfield and Dawson Springs to view tornado damage from last weekend's storms.

According to the White House itinerary, Biden flew out of Joint Base Andrews at 8:20 this morning.

He's scheduled to arrive at Fort Campbell around 10:10, and immediately be escorted on a aerial survey of damage on his way to Mayfield.

The President is expected to land in Mayfield around 11 am. While there, he'll be briefed by local officials and take a tour of neighborhoods.

He's scheduled to leave Mayfield at 1:35 and fly to Princeton by 2 pm. From there, he'll be taken to Dawson Springs for a tour of the damage there, and deliver some remarks.

Biden will return to Princeton around 4:10, fly back to Fort Campbell by 4:30, and be back in Washington after 6 p.m.


(AP STORY)

For the fifth time since taking office less than a year ago, President Joe Biden is taking on the grim task Wednesday of visiting an area ravaged by natural disaster to offer comfort and condolences.

Biden is in Kentucky to survey damage and offer federal support for the victims of devastating tornadoes that killed dozens and left thousands more in the region without heat, water or electricity.

More than 30 tornadoes tore through five states over the weekend, killing at least 88 people and demolishing homes, downing power lines and cutting off residents from key utilities as temperatures dropped below freezing in Kentucky earlier this week. Five twisters hit the state, including one with an extraordinarily long path of about 200 miles.

Jeff and Tara Wilson, a married couple from Mayfield, were at the Graves County Fairgrounds on Tuesday where a distribution center has been set up to pass out food, water and clothing to storm victims. They were setting up a mobile site for storm victims to receive counseling and said their home was unscathed.

Asked about the president’s visit and the reception he’ll receive in this prominently Republican region, Tara Wilson replied: “Don’t know. I think that as long as everybody’s hearts are in the right place, we need to not focus on politics right now.” She said it was a “very positive thing” that Biden was visiting, and she and her husband expressed hope the president might help unite the community.

“This place is like a bomb has been dropped on it. And everyone needs to come together,” Wilson said. “So far that’s what’s happening. You’re seeing everyone pull together.”

Besides the deaths in Kentucky, the tornadoes also killed at least six people in Illinois, where the Amazon distribution center in Edwardsville was hit; four in Tennessee; two in Arkansas, where a nursing home was destroyed and the governor said workers shielded residents with their own bodies; and two in Missouri.

The president signed two federal disaster declarations for Kentucky over the weekend, providing federal aid for search and rescue and cleanup operations, as well as aid for temporary housing and to help individuals and businesses recover.

Biden said earlier this week during a White House briefing on the tragedy with Department of Homeland Security that the federal government is committed to providing whatever the affected states need in the aftermath of the storm.

“We’re going to get this done,” Biden said. “We’re going to be there as long as it takes to help.”




Photo: An American flag hangs from a damaged tree Sunday, Dec. 12, 2021, in Mayfield, Ky. President Joe Biden is headed to Kentucky to survey damage and offer federal support for the victims of the devastating tornadoes that killed dozens and left thousands more in the region without heat, water or electricity. More than 30 tornadoes tore through Kentucky and four other states over the weekend. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)