Obama tours storm-battered New York

NEW YORK (CNN) - 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, just more than 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 Thursday, 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.