The president then flew by helicopter over Asheville, a city of nearly 100,000 inhabitants in the Appalachian Mountains, where breathtaking damage is visible everywhere after the passage of the hurricane. Floods there washed away bridges, filled lakes with debris, while buildings were destroyed and roads obliterated.
Billions to rebuild
“What I saw there broke my heart,” Joe Biden said on X. “But on the ground, we saw neighbors helping neighbors, volunteers and staff standing side by side, and people leaning on each other. This is America,” he added.
Reconstruction will require “billions of dollars and years,” warned Homeland Security Minister Alejandro Mayorkas aboard the presidential plane. “There are localities that have literally disappeared,” he stressed.
The White House announced that the president would visit Florida and Georgia on Thursday, states also affected by the hurricane. Some of these disaster states are decisive for the presidential election on November 5.
Harris in Georgia
“I’m here to thank you and to listen,” the vice president and Democratic candidate said during a visit to the emergency operations center in Augusta, Georgia. Kamala Harris praised the emergency services for their action to “meet the needs of residents”. Visiting a shelter, the vice president also distributed meals to families affected by the hurricane and received a standing ovation upon her departure.
Joe Biden announced that he was mobilizing a thousand additional soldiers for relief operations in North Carolina, reinforcements in addition to the thousands of rescuers and members of the National Guard, a reserve force, already hard at work on the ground. In the south of the Appalachian Mountains, residents found themselves cut off from the world.
“Brain death”
One month before an election that promises to be extremely close, Donald Trump immediately took up the subject. The former president visited Valdosta, a disaster-stricken town in Georgia, on Monday. “The federal state is not responsive,” said the Republican candidate, in front of a partially destroyed building. He previously accused the federal government and Democratic officials in North Carolina of “deliberately not helping people in Republican areas.”
“He’s lying,” a virulent Joe Biden was indignant the same day, denouncing “irresponsible” comments. The president brushed off Republican criticism of his handling of the crisis, ensuring that he had worked tirelessly, even if he spent the weekend at his beach house in Delaware.
Joe Biden claims to have waited until Wednesday to go to the scene so as not to disrupt already difficult relief operations. “At times like this, we put politicking aside,” he said in North Carolina on Wednesday.
The Democratic president also warned that climate change is only increasing the severity and frequency of such extreme weather events. “No one can deny the impact of the climate crisis yet, at least I hope so,” he said. “They must be brain dead if that’s the case,” Joe Biden added.
The impact of the storm on the November 5 presidential vote remains difficult to assess. According to a poll conducted by Quinnipiac University between September 25 and 29, that is to say a little before and during Hurricane Helen, Donald Trump is ahead of Kamala Harris in Georgia (50% of voting intentions against 44 %). He would also have the ascendancy, but less clearly, over the Democrat in North Carolina (49% against 47%).
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