[h=3]By JARED A. FAVOLE[/h]WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama on Tuesday morning signed major-disaster declarations for New Jersey and New York, two states that have faced severe flooding and wind damage from Hurricane Sandy.
Reed Albergotti/The Wall Street JournalNew York City, as the day starts after Sandy.
Mr. Obama signed the declarations early Tuesday as residents of the states awoke in many places to several feet of water and no electricity. The declarations free up federal resources to help the affected areas.
"The President today declared a major disaster exists in the State of New Jersey and ordered federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts due to Hurricane Sandy beginning on October 26, 2012, and continuing," the White House said in a statement. A similar statement was released for New York.
A White House official said Mr. Obama was updated on Sandy overnight and will receive another briefing Tuesday. Mr. Obama spoke overnight with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey. He also spoke with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the mayors of Newark and Jersey City.
The president earlier in the week signed disaster declarations for a number of states along the East Coast, including Delaware, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.
These declarations were different and didn't describe the states as facing a "major disaster," a label that helps free up more federal resources.
Mr. Obama, in a televised statement from the White House Monday before Hurricane Sandy made landfall, urged residents to listen to local officials' advice about how to respond to the storm. He said people should expect power outages and understand that because of winds it may take several days for power to be restored.
"The same is true with transportation; There are going to be a lot of backlogs, and even after the storm has cleared it's going to take a considerable amount of time for airlines, subways, trains and so forth potentially to get back on schedule," Mr. Obama said.
Reed Albergotti/The Wall Street JournalNew York City, as the day starts after Sandy.
Mr. Obama signed the declarations early Tuesday as residents of the states awoke in many places to several feet of water and no electricity. The declarations free up federal resources to help the affected areas.
"The President today declared a major disaster exists in the State of New Jersey and ordered federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts due to Hurricane Sandy beginning on October 26, 2012, and continuing," the White House said in a statement. A similar statement was released for New York.
A White House official said Mr. Obama was updated on Sandy overnight and will receive another briefing Tuesday. Mr. Obama spoke overnight with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey. He also spoke with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the mayors of Newark and Jersey City.
The president earlier in the week signed disaster declarations for a number of states along the East Coast, including Delaware, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.
These declarations were different and didn't describe the states as facing a "major disaster," a label that helps free up more federal resources.
Mr. Obama, in a televised statement from the White House Monday before Hurricane Sandy made landfall, urged residents to listen to local officials' advice about how to respond to the storm. He said people should expect power outages and understand that because of winds it may take several days for power to be restored.
"The same is true with transportation; There are going to be a lot of backlogs, and even after the storm has cleared it's going to take a considerable amount of time for airlines, subways, trains and so forth potentially to get back on schedule," Mr. Obama said.