Wednesday’s White House ceremony in the Rose Garden to mark the centenary of diplomatic relations between Ireland the United States has been postponed at the request of president Joe Biden as its timing coincides with the anticipated arrival of the latest storm cycle to threaten the southern states of the country.
By Monday evening, the tracking of Hurricane Milton dominated the news headlines in the United States as it was described as a monster category five hurricane with winds generating winds of up to 180 miles an hour – a once-in-a-lifetime weather event. For context, Hurricane Katrina, which wiped out entire sections of New Orleans in 2005, was a category three.
It was suggested that the hurricane is set to grow stronger as it approaches land, and officials had begun to facilitate mass evacuations from Tampa Bay, with the heavily populated central west coast of Florida expected to bear the worst of the hurricane’s force.
The threat of widespread destruction will further stress the capabilities of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has been dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which in late September caused the deaths of at least 213 people and wiped out towns in the western counties of North Carolina.
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Although Washington DC is safely removed from the path of the hurricane, hosting what was intended as a diplomatic celebration during this new storm cycle would be inappropriate.
“President Biden and Taoiseach Simon Harris spoke last night,” a spokesperson confirmed on Monday evening.
“The president asked that they would proceed as planned at the Oval Office on Wednesday but, given the grave threat posed in the United States by Hurricane Milton, they would postpone the reception in the Rose Garden until a later date. The Taoiseach will proceed with all other parts of his programme in Washington.”
Mr Harris will attend the Dáil on Tuesday morning before departing for Washington on an evening flight. The Wednesday ceremony planned for the Rose Garden was to have been the celebratory high point of the Taoiseach’s two-day visit. Some 300 guests were informed of its postponement on Monday evening. The event was also designed as an opportunity to reflect on president Biden’s career-long affection for Ireland as he goes through the closing months of his presidency.
However, the diplomatic function has come up in a White House itinerary currently burdened with the worsening Middle East crisis and the relentless Republican campaign criticism of the president.
The response of the US government in providing aid and assistance to victims of Hurricane Helene has become a bitterly contentious election issue, with Donald Trump’s campaign repeatedly claiming the federal response has been lacking, despite assertions to the contrary from Republican representatives in the afflicted regions of North Carolina.
Trump has also repeated the falsehood that the Biden administration had used storm response funding on migrants, leading White House spokesman Andrew Bates to warn in a memo that it is “paramount that every leader, whatever their political beliefs, stops spreading this poison. This isn’t about politics – it’s about helping people”.
Mr Harris is due to return home to Ireland on Thursday. It remains unclear when the postponed event might now take place.
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