Vice President Kamala Harris embraced families as she surveyed storm damage in Georgia on Wednesday, offering residents comfort in the aftermath of the devastation of Hurricane Helene.
The Democratic vice presidential nominee traveled to Augusta, where she toured a Red Cross relief center, met with local officials, passed out food, and delivered remarks on federal disaster support, according to the Associated Press.
“The president and I have been paying close attention from the beginning to what we need to do to make sure the federal resources hit the ground as quickly as possible,” Harris said, according to The New York Times. “That work has been happening.”
ADVERTISEMENT
President Joe Biden was also in the Southeast on Wednesday, stopping in both North Carolina and South Carolina, about 200 miles away from Harris. “I’m here to say the United States, the nation, has your back,” he said, ABC News reported. “They’re not leaving until you're back on your feet completely.”
The dual visits by Biden and Harris come the same day the president announced that he would deploy 1,000 active duty troops from the Defense Department to help with the distribution of food, water, and other supplies. The troops will assist the 6,000 National Guard members and 4,800 federal aid workers already assigned to relief efforts.
The president is expected to travel to both Florida and Georgia on Thursday, according to White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, is set to go to North Carolina in the near future.
The death toll across the region was at least 162 on Wednesday, with authorities warning that number was expected to rise. Buncombe County, over which part of Biden took an helicopter tour on Wednesday, surveying areas made inaccessible by the storm, has reported at least 57 deaths.
Millions have been left without access to electricity and running water, and hundreds more remain missing.
After making landfall in Florida last Thursday night, Helene swept through five more states—the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia—leaving downed power lines, flattened trees, flooded roads, and decimated houses in its wake. An emergency official in Buncombe County said that North Carolina had experienced “biblical devastation,” according to the BBC.
Former President Donald Trump made his own trip to Georgia earlier in the week to survey damage and deliver remarks. He criticized Harris and Biden for not traveling to the state and falsely claimed that Republican Gov. Brian Kemp had been unable to reach the president. (Kemp said that he had spoken to Biden, who had offered him any federal support he needed, on Sunday.)
During her Wednesday visit, Harris said that she wanted to view the “extraordinary” devastation firsthand. Touring the Augusta Emergency Operations Center and meeting with first responders, she told them that she was there “to thank you and to listen.
“I’ve been reading and hearing about the work you’ve been doing over the last few days, and I think it really does represent some of the best of what we each know can be done,” she said, “especially when we coordinate around local, state, federal resources to meet the needs of people who must be seen, who must be heard.”
