Hurricane Helene: Army reinforcements, Biden and Harris in three affected states

US President Joe Biden and his vice-president President Kamala Harris visits several hurricane-ravaged Atlantic states Hélène, a disaster whose management by the Democratic administration earned it criticism from Donald Trump.

Arrived in Early this afternoon in South Carolina, Mr. Biden mobilized an additional thousand 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 precede 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.

Heavy rains as Hurricane Helen passes © AFP – Nicholas SHEARMAN

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

Reconstruction will require “billions of dollars and years,” warned the minister aboard the presidential plane.

“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 seriously affected 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.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks in front of a building partially destroyed by Hurricane Helene, in Valdosta, Georgia (southeastern United States), on September 30, 2024 © AFP – CHANDAN KHANNA

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

In Asheville, entire neighborhoods were reduced to rubble. 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 castigated, after having earlier accused the central government and the Democratic authorities of North Carolina of “deliberately not helping people in Republican areas.”

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

US Vice President Kamala Harris attends a meeting of the federal disaster response agency, FEMA, in Washington, September 30, 2024 © AFP – Brendan SMIALOWSKI

The president brushed off Republican criticism of his handling of the crisis, saying he had worked tirelessly, even though he spent the weekend at his beach house from 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 September 25 and 29, that is to say, shortly before and during 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%).

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