President Obama Requests $5.1 Billion More for Disaster Relief

U.S. President Barack Obama has asked Congress to approve $5.1 billion in extra disaster relief after Hurricane Irene and different extreme weather have battered wide regions of the united states.

In a letter Friday to the top-ranking congressman, House Speaker John Boehner, President Obama said the extra funding was to be used through the end of following fiscal year.

Mr. Obama said the money is important to respond to “urgent and essential” wants.

He said $1.5 billion would be used to rebuild after Hurricane Irene caused huge floods and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes across the densely populated east coast in August. the rest of the money would be accessible for different disaster relief efforts.

The National Climatic knowledge Center said earlier in the week the U.S. has in 2011 already suffered through a record-breaking 10 climate-related disasters, every inflicting over $1 billion in economic injury. The year’s events embrace flooding, drought, blizzards, and tornadoes.

Many scientists attribute the increased natural disasters to world warming, saying a warmer atmosphere is more seemingly to power dangerous storms.