Biden, Harris take stock of battered southeastern US after Hurricane Helene

The US president and vice president will visit the Carolinas and Georgia, where more than one million people are without power.

US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will head to South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia in the wake of a devastating storm that tore through the region last week, killing at least 155.

Hurricane Helene, a thunderous Category 4 storm, unleashed some of the worst flooding in generations after it made landfall on September 26, sweeping away homes and cars and claiming victims across the Carolinas and Georgia, in addition to Florida, Tennessee and Virgina.

As Biden and Harris get ready to see the damage close up on Wednesday, hundreds are still missing and more than a million are without power.

“It was close to a worst-case scenario for western North Carolina”, with some of the most severe flooding ever seen, according to an assessment shared by the North Carolina State Climate Office.

Recovery, according to US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, will be a years-long “multibillion-dollar undertaking”.

Where will Biden go?

Biden will first travel to Greenville, South Carolina on Wednesday.

He will then head to Raleigh, North Carolina and fly over the city of Asheville, in the western part of the state, where Helene wreaked some of its worst devastation.

We have to jump-start this recovery process,” said Biden, who has issued disaster declarations for North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Virginia and who has vowed to send “every available resource” to their communities in need. “People are scared to death. This is urgent,” he said.

Vice President Harris, for her part, will travel to Georgia on Wednesday. She will also stop by North Carolina in the “coming days”, according to a White House official cited by The Hill.

US President Joe Biden speaks alongside Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (left) and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas (right) on Hurricane Helene recovery efforts, at the White House in Washington, DC, the US on October 1 [Saul Loeb/AFP]

Election test

The White House administration’s handling of the crisis is a pivotal trial ahead of the November US elections, in which the battleground states of North Carolina and Georgia could prove decisive.

Both states are currently on a razor’s edge, with Republican contender Donald Trump leading by just a point or two, according to the FiveThirtyEight polling aggregator.

Trump, who went to Georgia earlier this week, has already weaponised the storm for his campaign, accusing Biden of “sleeping” amid the crisis and Harris of “staging” a photo showing her coordinating the administration’s emergency response.

I was just briefed by @FEMA_Deanne Criswell on the latest developments about the ongoing impacts of Hurricane Helene. We also discussed our Administration's continued actions to support emergency response and recovery.
 
I also spoke with @NC_Governor Cooper about the ongoing… pic.twitter.com/nlZPB0h3mO

— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) September 30, 2024

Biden said Trump was “lying” about their response. He added that he had opted not to visit the region in person sooner so as not to deflect attention from relief and rescue efforts.

“My top priority is to ensure the communities devastated by this hurricane get the help and support they need as quickly as possible,” Biden told reporters on Tuesday.