US President Joe Biden appeared momentarily confused when requested in regards to the wants of states affected by Hurricane Helene throughout his go to to the storm-hit area. When questioned by a reporter in regards to the storm zone, Biden responded, “Oh, storm zone? I do not know which storm you’re speaking about, they’re getting what they want, and they’re very joyful throughout the board.”
Biden’s remarks got here as he toured areas severely impacted by Hurricane Helene, which has left greater than 210 individuals confirmed lifeless, making it the second-deadliest storm to strike the US mainland in over 50 years.The President’s go to to the southeastern states marked his second consecutive day assembly with residents within the wake of the catastrophe, which has disrupted hundreds of thousands of lives.
Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc throughout a number of states, flooding cities, damaging infrastructure, and leaving communities reeling from the destruction. Roads stay blocked, energy outages are widespread, and water companies have been disrupted. Many areas are dealing with a protracted and troublesome restoration.
Official figures affirm not less than 212 fatalities throughout North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, and Virginia. North Carolina, particularly, has seen greater than half of those deaths because it struggles with an unprecedented flood catastrophe described as “post-apocalyptic.”
“I see you, I hear you, I grieve with you — and I promise you, we’ve got your again,” Biden assured residents throughout his go to to Ray Metropolis, Georgia, the place he surveyed injury at an area pecan farm.
Biden visited Florida’s Gulf Coast, the place Helene made landfall as a Class 4 hurricane with winds of as much as 140 miles per hour. He toured the devastation, strolling by way of the ruins of destroyed properties in Keaton Seaside. “Properties had been simply wiped away, simply a complete island gone,” he mentioned after the go to, vowing continued federal help for these affected.
Regardless of the in depth response efforts, together with 1000’s of federal employees and Nationwide Guard members helping native authorities, the dying toll is anticipated to rise as restoration operations proceed.
Throughout his tour of North Carolina, Biden addressed the hyperlink between local weather change and the intensification of storms, stating that anybody denying the local weather disaster “have to be brain-dead.”
In the meantime, former President Donald Trump criticised the administration’s storm response, falsely claiming that federal funds had been depleted by spending on migrants, an announcement broadly discredited.