Harris, Biden in three states hit by Hurricane Helene

Photo: Sean Rayford Getty Images via Agence France-Presse Joe Biden will first go to North Carolina, where he will conduct a helicopter flight over particularly hard-hit areas.

Danny Kemp – Agence France-Presse in Washington

Posted at 1:11 PM Updated at 3:52 PM

• United States

US President Joe Biden and his Vice President Kamala Harris are visiting several states on the Atlantic coast ravaged by Hurricane Helene, a disaster whose management by the Democratic administration has earned it criticism from Donald Trump.

Arriving in South Carolina early this afternoon, Mr. Biden mobilized a thousand additional military personnel for relief operations in North Carolina, the neighboring state where he is expected later in the day.

These reinforcements are in addition to the thousands of rescue workers and members of the National Guard, a reserve force, already working on the ground.

The White House announced that President Biden would travel to Florida and Georgia on Thursday, another state hit by the hurricane that left more than 150 dead, where his vice president will have preceded him on Wednesday.

Some of these disaster-stricken states are decisive in electoral terms, with just over a month to go before the presidential election on November 5.

“We will stay there as long as it takes,” assured Joe Biden in a press release, accompanied in particular by his Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas.

Reconstruction will require “Billions of dollars and years,” the minister warned on board the presidential plane.

200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000

“There are localities that have literally disappeared,” he stressed.

In South Carolina, where at least 36 deaths have been reported, President Biden spoke with emergency workers and local officials.

In North Carolina, the state with the highest death toll at more than 70, President Biden will fly over particularly hard-hit areas around the town of Asheville by helicopter. He will also go to the rescue operations command center.

The vice president and Democratic candidate arrived a little later in Georgia, also badly hit by this major natural disaster.

Campaign schedule disrupted

Hurricane Helene left 155 dead, according to a provisional report, and caused considerable damage, due to sudden and devastating floods.

In the southern Appalachian Mountains, residents found themselves cut off from the world.

In Asheville, entire neighborhoods were reduced to ruins. With no road access, the authorities are sending aid, water and food supplies by air.

A month before an election that promises to be extremely close, Donald Trump immediately seized on the subject.

The former president went to Valdosta, a disaster-stricken town in Georgia, on Monday, where he spoke to the press in front of a partially destroyed building.

“The federal government is not responsive,” the Republican candidate lambasted, after having earlier accused the central government and the Democratic authorities in North Carolina of “deliberately not helping people in Republican areas.”

“He's lying,” an outraged Joe Biden was outraged the same day, denouncing “irresponsible” remarks.

The president brushed aside Republican criticism of his handling of the crisis, assuring that he had worked tirelessly, even though he was spending the weekend at his beach house in Delaware.

Joe Biden assures that he did not travel before Wednesday so as not to disrupt already difficult relief operations.

Kamala Harris, for her part, cut short a campaign trip to the southwest of the United States to return to Washington and changed her schedule for the week to go to Georgia.

According to a poll conducted by Quinnipiac University between the 25th and September 29, that is, a little before and during the hurricane Helene, Donald Trump would be ahead of Kamala Harris in Georgia (50% of voting intentions against 44%).

He would also have the upper hand, but less clearly, over the Democrat in North Carolina (49% against 47%).

Read also

• Hurricane “Helene” interferes in the presidential campaign
• In the Appalachians, a town engulfed by storm “Helene”