US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will visit North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia on Wednesday to assess the damage caused by Hurricane Helen in the southeastern United States, which killed at least 140 people.
Biden will visit North Carolina and South Carolina, while Harris is scheduled to visit Georgia on Wednesday and North Carolina in the coming days.
The visit came after former President Donald Trump, who is running against Harris in this year's presidential election, falsely claimed that Democrat Biden was unresponsive to the hurricane damage.
Biden will take part in an air tour in Greenville, South Carolina, and then receive a briefing in Raleigh, North Carolina, as rescuers search for survivors in the state's mountains.
He previously said he planned to travel to Georgia and Florida soon.
North Carolina and Georgia are among the seven key battleground states in this year's election, and are expected to be won by narrow margins.
Harris currently leads Trump by 2.6 percentage points in national polls, according to the polling firm FiveThirtyEight.
Election officials in North Carolina are scrambling to ensure that the state's more than 7 million registered voters can cast their votes in the upcoming presidential election.
President Trump visited Georgia earlier this week.
Presidents and presidential candidates typically do not immediately visit storm-hit areas for fear of distracting relief efforts and depleting the resources of local law enforcement and emergency responders.
Hurricane Helen struck Florida as a powerful Category 4 hurricane on Thursday, tearing a devastating path through southeastern states for several days.
Biden quickly issued major disaster declarations in several states, allowing survivors to apply for federal aid.
The White House also called hundreds of officials in North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina and Florida.
The White House says more than 3,500 federal employees are working on the response in affected states, but Biden will ask Congress to return to Washington for a special session to pass additional aid funding earlier this week. He said there is a possibility.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Tuesday that the rebuilding process after Hurricane Helen will be extremely expensive and take years.
