April 28 (UPI) — President Joe Biden issued a disaster declaration for South Florida to help recovery efforts after the area was battered by severe storms, tornadoes, and flooding.

Thursday’s declaration will provide federal funding to individuals in Broward County who were affected by the storms earlier this month. The money will include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and other programs.

More than 20 inches of rain fell in South Florida over the span of about 72 hours two weeks ago. The historic rainfall came as a storm system hovered almost in place over the region.

The flooding also prompted Broward County Schools, the sixth-largest school system in the nation, to close campuses on April 13.

Last week Vice President Kamala Harris referenced the recent flooding as she discussed climate change and mitigation against extreme weather events in Miami. Speaking at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science, Harris said, “The climate crisis represents a profound threat — as we all know — to our nation and to the world.”

She also announced a $562 million investment to help protect communities in 30 coastal states against the effects of climate change.

Florida will likely have to deal with more extreme weather because of climate change. A study published last week by researchers at Tulane University warned that the sea level is rising by half an inch annually, posing an increased threat to the Southeast and Gulf Coasts.

The ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are melting at an accelerating pace causing significant sea level rise, according to a three-decade-long study published in the journal Earth System Science Data.

“All this has profound implications for coastal communities around the world and their risk of being exposed to flooding and erosion,” the study’s leader, Dr. Ines Otosaka from Britain’s Center for Polar Observation and Modelling, told the BBC.