(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump traveled to Florida Thursday to tour damage caused by Hurricane Irma, the third time in three weeks he's visited an area devastated by a natural disaster.
Hurricane Irma slammed into Southwest Florida last weekend, destroying buildings and snapping trees after causing more extensive damage on the Florida Keys.
Trump met Republican Governor Rick Scott and first responders in Fort Myers and later helped pass out sandwiches to storm victims in Naples.
Stop at mobile home park
Trump's helicopter flew over neighborhoods still flooded and homes with roofs partially peeled away. Later, in a motorcade, he passed a gas station with a line of about 30 cars waiting for fuel.
At a stop at a mobile home park, Trump promised, "We are there for you 100 percent. I'll be back here numerous times."
Since last month, Trump has traveled to Texas twice and to Louisiana to view damage from Hurricane Harvey, which made landfall Aug. 25 as a Category 4 storm and dumped more than 50 inches of rain on Houston.
Puerto Rico visit planned
As Trump was touring Florida, Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello announced in a Twitter post that the president will visit the island to "see firsthand effects" of Irma there. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One during the return flight to Washington that he would travel to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands — hit directly by Irma while it was still a category 5 storm — either late next week or early the following week.
While Southeast Texas took the brunt of Harvey's wrath, Hurricane Irma's destruction was more widespread, causing damage in the Caribbean and across the Florida peninsula. More than 6.5 million homes and businesses lost electricity in Florida, and fuel shortages plagued much of the state.
As of Wednesday afternoon, 3.7 million customers still were without power, according to state statistics. In Collier County, where Naples is located, 75% of residents still faced outages.
Eight people in a Hollywood, Florida, nursing home died after Hurricane Irma knocked out power to the facility, police said Wednesday.
"This is an inexcusable tragedy that frail patients would die of heat exhaustion without it being recognized and taking them to the hospital next door," Florida Senator Bill Nelson, a Democrat, said in a statement Wednesday.
Deaths and damage
The Atlantic hurricane season has killed at least 100 people so far and caused estimated damage of at least $135 billion in the U.S. and the Caribbean.
It has also affected Trump's legislative agenda, forcing Congress to appropriate emergency funding for relief efforts. Last week, Trump cut a deal with Democrats in Congress to provide more than $15 billion in disaster aid for Harvey, while raising the U.S. government's borrowing limit and funding the government through Dec. 8.
Trump on Wednesday said this year's deadly hurricanes add urgency to his tax-cut plan.
"With Irma and Harvey devastation, Tax Cuts and Tax Reform is needed more than ever before. Go Congress, go!" Trump tweeted.
Trump is planning to campaign for the Republican tax plan in states where Democratic senators face tough re-election prospects in 2018. In Florida, where Democratic Senator Bill Nelson is running for re-election next year, Trump has already encouraged Scott to challenge the incumbent.
Trump won Florida's 29 electoral votes in last year's presidential race.
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