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With the president in town, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the area’s elected officials toured the storm-ravaged borough of Staten Island on Thursday.

Obama said he would was making Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan the “point person” for the recovery effort.

“He’s going to be working with the mayor, the governor, the borough president, the county officials to make sure that we come up with a strong, effective plan,” Obama said.

Cuomo, of course, is a former HUD secretary himself in the second term of Bill Clinton, a job he frequently mentions whenever talk turns to the federal government or housing issues.

“It’s not going to be easy. There’s still going to be some, believe it or not, complaints, or the next couple of weeks,” the president said. “I’m very proud of you New York, you’re tough, you bounce back, just as America always bounces back.”

But aside from pointing Donovan, who used to run NYC’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, to the spotlight role for storm recovery, Obama kept his comments general.

He notably did not mention climate change concerns.

Bloomberg endorsed Obama just days before his election to a second term largely because he felt the Democratic incumbent was best equipped to deal with climate change.

But Cuomo reiterated his concerns that New York’s infrastructure must be rebuilt to handle the “extreme weather” that’s hit New York three times in the last two years.

“We must re-knit the fabric of tattered communities. we must re-think and redesign for the longterm because extreme weather as we have learned is the new normal,” Cuomo said.

The governor has requested $30 billion worth of supplemental aide from Washington in order to help with the recovery effort. Unlike the FEMA reimbursement aid, the supplemental package must be approved by Congress.

In press gaggle earlier today, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Cuomo’s specific plan is yet to be seen by federal officials.

Well, we can’t comment specifically on that plan, as we haven’t seen it, but the administration continues to provide all available resources to support our state and local partners, as well as affected families. The administration, as you know, has obligated more than $1.5 billion to support response and recovery efforts, which includes more than $600 million now, already approved in direct assistance to hundreds of thousands of individuals impacted by the storm. And we will continue to work with the governors on ongoing recovery efforts, including supporting their efforts to develop appropriate long-term housing plans for those whose homes were damaged or destroyed.

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