Obama tours storm-battered New York

President Barack Obama embraces a local resident on Cedar Grove Avenue during a visit to Staten Island on Thursday, November 15. President Barack Obama on Thursday designated Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan the federal point person to lead New York's storm recovery effort, a little over two weeks after a rare mix of converging weather slammed into the Northeast."We thought it'd be good to have a New Yorker," Obama said, referencing Donovan's previous stint atop the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development. The agency is thought to be among the nation's largest municipal developers of low- to mid-income housing."FEMA basically runs the recovery process," the president said