President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are set to make their first visits to areas affected by Hurricane Helene on Oct. 2.
The White House confirmed Biden will visit South Carolina and North Carolina while Harris will visit Georgia.
Biden officially announced that he will visit North Carolina on Sept. 30 during a video conference call with North Carolina’s Gov. Roy Cooper and Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator (FEMA) Deanne Criswell opened to press.
“I’m going to North Carolina on Wednesday,” he said. “It’s the plan now.”
Biden said he would land in Raleigh for a meeting at the emergency operations center there before going on an aerial tour.
Biden also said that he would survey damage “without taking resources or diverting resources on the ground,” and that he will travel to Georgia and Florida “as soon as possible.”
“Thank you, Mr. President, we appreciate the resources that are coming our way,” Cooper said. “This has been a devastating storm, as you know, and we’re grateful to have had Administrator Criswell here on the ground all day today. And she’s going to be staying and making sure we surge assets into the area to get people food and water and to get the power back on.”
Biden expressed condolences to the families whose loved ones died from the storm or are missing. The president said his administration was “going to be there finish the job” of recovery, adding, “It’s going to take a hell of a long time.”
FEMA announced shortly before Biden’s remarks that more than 900 personnel were actively supporting search and rescue efforts in North Carolina, with 10 federal teams currently on the ground and another nine on the way.
Also, in North Carolina alone, 40 Starlink satellite systems have been deployed, and FEMA plans to deliver one to every county’s emergency operations center to “assist with communications and continuity of government.”
Other resources deployed to the state include 200 federal ambulances, 25 trailer loads of meals, one C-17 cargo plane full of food, water, and other commodities, 60 trailer loads of water, and 18 helicopters standing by to make deliveries to affected areas.
Currently, more than 1,000 people are accounted for in 29 shelters.
“Getting water in here on a sustained basis is going to be critical,” Cooper said. “And we are discussing the strategies to continue those efforts and to surge those efforts.”
North Carolina has reported a significant portion of the more than 100 storm-related deaths across the southeast United States, with 30 deaths alone coming from Buncombe County, which includes the mountain city of Asheville.
Torrential rain from Hurricane Helene caused catastrophic flooding and landslides in the mountains of western North Carolina, washing away several sections of roads and houses.
North Carolina’s Department of Transportation states on its website, “All roads in Western North Carolina should be considered closed, and non-emergency travel is prohibited.”
Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris visited FEMA headquarters in Washington and was joined by FEMA’s Deputy Administrator Erik Hooks who thanked her for “showing up” for them.
Harris shook hands and personally thanked several FEMA workers at the headquarters.
She told members of the press, “We have responded with our best” in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and that “we will do everything in our power to help communities recover.”
She said the devastation is “heartbreaking” and said she will be “on the ground as soon as possible.”
According to a White House Official, the vice president spoke about recovery efforts with Georgia’s Gov. Brian Kemp; Mayor Van Johnson of Savannah, Georgia; Mayor Knox White of Greenville, South Carolina; and Mayor Jane Castor of Tampa, Florida while aboard Air Force Two earlier that same day.