President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris every journey to the storm-ravaged Southeast on Wednesday, because the dying toll and devastation from Hurricane Helene soars and a few million individuals stay with out energy and operating water.
Over 160 individuals have been killed by Helene since the hurricane made landfall in Florida late Thursday earlier than tearing a path of destruction via the inside Southeast. The storm sparked hundreds of thousands of energy outages and billions of {dollars} in property injury because it smashed via the southern Appalachian Mountains and into the Tennessee Valley.
Because the floodwaters from the storm receded, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper lamented that within the western a part of his state “communities were wiped off the map.”
NORTH CAROLINA RESIDENTS FIGHT FOR THEIR SURVIVAL
North Carolina and Georgia, which was additionally onerous hit by the storm, are two of the seven key battlegrounds whose razor-thin margins determined Biden’s 2020 election victory over former President Trump and are anticipated to find out the result of the 2024 showdown between Harris and Trump.
Flood injury at a bridge throughout Mill Creek within the aftermath of Hurricane Helene on Sept. 30, 2024, in Outdated Fort, North Carolina. ( Sean Rayford/Getty Photos)
And with a margin-of-error race between the vice chairman and Trump with lower than 5 weeks to go till Election Day on Nov. 5, and with the previous president throughout a visit to the storm-damaged area earlier this week blasting each Biden and Harris over the federal response, the hurricane has grow to be front-and-center within the White Home race.
The president on Wednesday heads to North Carolina, the place he’ll survey injury from a helicopter flight over the town of Ashville, one of many hardest hit areas. Biden will even go to a rescue command heart within the state earlier than additionally stopping in neighboring South Carolina.
“My top priority is to ensure the communities devastated by this hurricane get the help and support they need as quickly as possible,” Biden instructed reporters Tuesday as he spoke throughout a Cupboard assembly specializing in the federal response.
Trump this previous weekend accused the president of “sleeping” at his seashore home in Delaware because the storm blasted the Southeast.
And talking with reporters as he arrived in Valdosta, Georgia, on Monday, the previous president charged that “the federal government is not being responsive.”
Former President Trump speaks exterior the Chez What furnishings retailer as he visits Valdosta, Georgia, a city hit onerous by Hurricane Helene, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Picture/Evan Vucci)
And he falsely claimed that Biden had not spoken with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a conservative Republican.
Pushing again in opposition to the political assaults, Biden has famous that he was on the cellphone with federal, state and native officers all through the weekend and returned to the nation’s capital on Sunday afternoon to observe storm rescue and aid efforts.
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“We had over 1,000 federal personnel, including search and rescue teams, at the ready on the ground before it hit,” the president mentioned on Tuesday. “Over the past several days, I’ve been in regular contact with the governors, the mayors, the county officials, and all the affected areas. That includes Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and Virginia.”
And Biden emphasised that his administration has despatched “every available resource that we have at our disposal to the affected region” and pledged “we’ll be there until this work is done.”
President Biden speaks throughout a briefing on the federal government’s response to Hurricane Helene within the Roosevelt Room of the White Home, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, as Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, left, and Secretary of Homeland Safety Alejandro Mayorkas pay attention. (AP Picture/Mark Schiefelbein)
Trump on Sunday attacked Harris for attending “fundraising events with her radical left lunatic donors” in California over the weekend. And he argued that Harris “ought to be down in the area” the place the storm brought about destruction.
On Monday throughout his cease in Georgia, Trump repeated the dig, saying, “The vice president, she’s out someplace campaigning looking for money.”
The White Home has highlighted that the vice chairman over the weekend was on the cellphone with federal, state and native officers.
Harris mentioned on Saturday that she and the president “remain committed to ensuring that no community or state has to respond to this disaster alone.”
On Monday, Harris visited FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] headquarters in Washington, D.C., the place she acquired a briefing on aid and rescue efforts.
“We will do everything in our power to help communities respond and recover,” Harris vowed.
Harris on Wednesday travels to Georgia to survey the impacts of the storm and obtain an on-the-ground briefing and supply updates on the federal response.
Harris was initially scheduled to participate Wednesday in a marketing campaign bus swing via central Pennsylvania, one other key battleground state, together with her operating mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
With the vice chairman headed to Georgia, Walz will headline the bus tour, which comes the day after he confronted off within the operating mates debate in opposition to Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, the GOP vice presidential nominee.
Throughout his Monday cease in Georgia, Trump highlighted that “I’ve come to Valdosta with large semi-trucks, many of them, filled with relief aid. A tanker truck filled up with gasoline, a couple of big tanker trucks filled up with gasoline, which they can’t get now. And we’ll be working to distribute it throughout the day.”
And a GoFundMe web page arrange by the Trump marketing campaign earlier this week has raised practically $4 million to date for storm victims.
Presidents and vice presidents typically don’t journey instantly to storm-damaged areas, to stop their journeys from hampering badly wanted rescue and aid efforts.
“I’m committed to traveling to the impacted areas as soon as possible, but I’ve been told that it would be disruptive if I did it right now. We will not do that at the risk of diverting or delaying any of the response assets needed to deal with this crisis,” Biden instructed reporters on Monday.
And Harris mentioned on Tuesday, “I plan to be on the ground as soon as possible – but as soon as possible without disrupting any emergency response operations, because that must be the highest priority and the first order of business.”
However the optics of Trump’s Monday cease in Georgia could have put some political strain on Biden and Harris.
Longtime Republican strategist David Kochel mentioned Trump had been “very aggressive” along with his fast journey to the storm-damaged area.
“I think he put a lot of pressure on them to try to do something,” Kochel, a veteran of quite a few GOP presidential campaigns, instructed Fox Information. “He’s out there pushing a line that they don’t care – they’re not doing anything and I think they’re reacting to it.”
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The response by elected officers to pure disasters can affect their political standing.
President George W. Bush was closely criticized in the summertime of 2005 for his preliminary response to Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans.
And Trump confronted criticism early in his White Home tenure as Puerto Rico struggled to get well from a strong storm. The president was pilloried for throwing paper towels to the group as he stopped by a aid heart throughout a storm-related go to to the island.
