At least 166 people were killed by Hurricane Helen, many remain missing, and more than 1 million people remain without power as rescue and recovery efforts continue from the devastating storm.
Hundreds of people went missing in Buncombe County, where Asheville is located, earlier this week, and 85 people went missing in Tennessee, CNN reported.
Joe Biden arrived in Greer, South Carolina, on Wednesday afternoon and was greeted by South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, Senator Lindsey Graham, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, and others. Before leaving Washington, the US president directed up to 1,000 people. Active-duty forces will be immediately dispatched to assist with recovery efforts.
Biden toured the affected areas from the Marine One helicopter, flying over flooded roads, trees and debris, over emergency trucks and downed power lines. In some areas, some homes were submerged under water, making it difficult to distinguish between the lake and land.
Biden said in Washington that a strike by U.S. longshoremen could make it even harder to get supplies to hard-hit areas.
“Natural disasters have an incredibly significant impact. On top of that, we want to avoid at all costs the man-made disasters that are happening at our ports,” Biden said. “We are hearing from local people who are struggling to get the products they need because of the port strike.”
Meanwhile, Kamala Harris arrived in Georgia on Wednesday and praised workers working hard to “meet the needs of people who want to be seen and heard.” She plans to visit North Carolina in the coming days. Donald Trump visited Georgia earlier this week.
The vice president was in Augusta, where devastation unfolded and fallen trees littered the sides of highways.
“I have read and heard about the work you have done over the past few days, and I think this represents the best of what I know each of us is capable of doing.” Harris said. “Especially as we coordinate local, state, and federal resources to meet the needs of people who want to be seen and heard.”
She added: “I’m listening now.”
As of 7:30 a.m. ET, about 1.3 million people were without power across several Southeastern states, according to poweroutage.us, a site that tracks outages. That total includes more than 373,000 people in Georgia, nearly 494,000 in South Carolina and more than 347,000 in North Carolina. More than 40,000 people remain without power in Florida and Virginia, and another 10,000 people are without power in West Virginia.
Some areas affected by the storm are also struggling to find drinking water. According to the Washington Post, about 100,000 people in Asheville are without running water. According to the paper, residents are boiling water in the stream to wash their bodies and dishes. Fema delivered a cargo plane loaded with food, water and emergency supplies on Tuesday, CNN reported.
Some Augusta residents have been without water for three days and are under boil water advisories.
Biden and lawmakers from affected states, including Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, signaled earlier this week that they would ask Congress, which is in recess, to pass additional disaster relief funding. But that seems unlikely.
A stopgap funding measure passed by Congress earlier this month will allow Fema to use $20 billion in disaster relief funds more quickly. But about $6 billion of those funds will go toward relief from past disasters, such as the Vermont floods and the Hawaii wildfires, according to the roll call.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said Tuesday that “Congress has provided the necessary funding for the response and we will ensure that those funds are appropriately allocated.”
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report
