President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris each visited the storm-ravaged Southeast on Wednesday, as the death toll and damage from Hurricane Helen soared, leaving millions without power and running water.
Since then, more than 160 people have been killed by Helen. hurricane It made landfall in Florida late Thursday, carving a path of destruction through the interior Southeast. The storm barreled through the southern Appalachians and into the Tennessee Valley, causing millions of power outages and billions of dollars in property damage.
As the storm's floodwaters receded, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper lamented that “communities have been wiped off the map” in the western part of the state.
North Carolina residents fight to survive
North Carolina and Georgia, which were also hit hard by the storm, are two of the seven key battleground states that narrowly decided Biden's victory over former President Trump in the 2020 election, and are two of the seven key battleground states that narrowly decided Biden's victory over former President Trump in the 2020 election. It is expected to determine the outcome of the showdown between Trump and Trump.
Flood damage to a bridge over Mill Creek in the aftermath of Hurricane Helen in Old Fort, North Carolina, September 30, 2024. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
And with less than five weeks until Election Day on Nov. 5, it's a close race between the vice president and Trump, with both Biden and the former president visiting storm-ravaged areas earlier this week. It exploded. The hurricane became a front line in the White House race, with Mr. Harris and Mr. Harris over the federal government's response.
Rescue efforts underway in North Carolina after Hurricane Helen's 'historic' flooding and landslides
The president is scheduled to travel to North Carolina on Wednesday to survey the damage after a helicopter flight over the city of Asheville, one of the hardest-hit areas. Biden also plans to visit rescue command centers in the state before making a stop in neighboring South Carolina.
“My top priority is to ensure that the communities affected by this hurricane receive the aid and assistance they need as soon as possible,” Biden told reporters Tuesday, addressing a Cabinet meeting focused on the federal response. We need to make sure that we can do that,” he said.
Over the weekend, Trump accused the president of “sleeping” at his Delaware beach house as storms battered the Southeast.
“The federal government is not responding,” the former president told reporters upon arriving in Valdosta, Georgia, on Monday.
On Monday, September 30, 2024, former President Trump speaks outside the Chez Watt furniture store during a visit to Valdosta, Georgia, which was severely damaged by Hurricane Helen. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
And Biden falsely claimed he had not spoken to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a conservative Republican.
Pushing back against political attacks, Biden said he consulted by phone with federal, state and local officials over the weekend and returned to the nation's capital on Sunday afternoon to oversee storm rescue and relief efforts.
Click here for the latest FOX News report on the Helen mess.
“More than 1,000 federal personnel, including search and rescue teams, were on site before the earthquake struck,” the president said Tuesday. “In recent days, I have been in regular contact with governors, mayors, county officials, and all affected communities, including Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and Virginia. Includes.
Mr. Biden emphasized that his administration is “sending every resource at our disposal to the affected areas,” and promised, “We will be on the ground until this effort is completed.”
President Biden speaks during a briefing on the government's response to Hurricane Helen on Tuesday, October 1, 2024, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, left, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas listen. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
President Trump on Sunday criticized Harris for attending a “fundraising event with crazy radical left-wing donors” in California over the weekend. And Harris argued that the storm “should go down to the areas” that caused destruction.
“Vice President, she's campaigning somewhere looking for money,” Trump said repeatedly while in Georgia on Monday.
The White House emphasized that the vice president had been speaking by phone with federal, state and local officials over the weekend.
Harris said Saturday that she and the president “remain committed to ensuring that no community or nation has to respond to this disaster alone.”
On Monday, Harris visited FEMA. [Federal Emergency Management Agency] She traveled to the headquarters in Washington, D.C., where she was briefed on rescue and rescue operations.
Harris vowed to “do everything in our power to support our community's response and recovery.”
Harris will travel to Georgia on Wednesday to assess the effects of the storm, receive briefings on the ground and provide an update on the federal government's response.
Harris had originally planned to travel on a campaign bus through central Pennsylvania, another battleground state, on Wednesday with her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Walz will headline a bus tour as the vice president heads to Georgia, a day after he faces off against Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio in a running mate debate. It will be done.
During a visit to Georgia on Monday, President Trump said, “We came to Valdosta in large semi-trucks, many of them filled with relief supplies. Tank trucks full of gasoline and several large tank trucks full of gasoline. ” he emphasized. It's not available right now, so we're working on distributing it throughout the day. ”
And a GoFundMe page set up by the Trump campaign earlier this week has so far raised nearly $4 million for storm victims.
The president and vice president often do not immediately go to storm-hit areas to avoid disrupting urgently needed rescue and relief efforts.
“I am trying to get to the affected areas as soon as possible, but I have been told that if I go now it will cause chaos. We don't have the assets we need to deal with this crisis,'' Biden told reporters on Monday.
And Harris said Tuesday: “We're going to be on the ground as soon as possible, but as soon as possible without disrupting emergency response operations, because that has to be our top priority and our top priority.”
But the circumstances of President Trump's visit to Georgia on Monday may have put some political pressure on Biden and Harris.
David Kochel, a longtime Republican strategist, said Trump was “very proactive” in making quick visits to storm-hit areas.
“I think he put a lot of pressure on them to do something,” Kochel, a veteran of numerous Republican presidential campaigns, told Fox News. “He's pushing the line that they don't care. I think they're reacting to that because they're not doing anything.”
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Elected officials' responses to natural disasters can influence their political positions.
President George W. Bush was heavily criticized for his initial response to Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in the summer of 2005.
And Trump faced criticism early in his White House tenure as Puerto Rico struggled to recover from the powerful storm. During a visit to the island affected by the storm, the president was criticized for throwing paper towels at a crowd during a stop at a relief center.
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