National News
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris handed out meals, hugged a devastated family and surveyed Hurricane Helene's “extraordinary” path of destruction through Georgia on Wednesday as she left the campaign trail to pledge federal aid and personally view the scenes fallen Trees, damaged homes and lives were turned the wrong way up.
She visited Augusta, where power lines stretched across the sidewalk and utility poles lay cracked and broken. Speaking from a lectern arrange outside a house with a fallen tree swaying on the roof, the vp paid tribute to those that died within the disaster. At the identical time, he sought to convey a tone of unity and hope for communities now facing long and expensive reconstruction efforts.
Harris and President Joe Biden, who visited the Carolinas on Wednesday, sought to exhibit commitment and competence in helping devastated communities after former Republican President Donald Trump made false claims about their administration's response.
Harris said she desired to “take a personal look at the devastation, which is extraordinary.” She expressed her admiration for the way “people are coming together. People are helping complete strangers.”
The Democratic presidential candidate said it shows that “the vast majority of us have so much more in common than what divides us,” a reference to a saying she often uses on the campaign trail.
Before delivering her remarks, Harris was seen hugging and huddling with a family of 5 as they struggled with the aftermath of the storm.
“We’re here for the long haul,” she said.
Harris also toured a Red Cross relief center and received a briefing from local officials praising those working to “meet the needs of people who need to be seen and heard.”
“I’m listening now,” she said.
Brittany Smith, an Augusta resident, left the distribution center with Styrofoam boxes stuffed with groceries and a number of fruit cups, beaming that she had taken a photograph with the vp. She said there was a hole in her roof and she or he needed to put her children elsewhere since it wasn't protected.
Despite the difficulties, Harris' visit “made it better,” she said.
Smith said she was encouraged that Harris traveled to town as a substitute of just appearing on television. “She is a person. She’s not just a voice.”
About 200 miles north within the Carolinas, Biden was also surveying the storm's aftermath. With many roads in the world inaccessible, he flew the helicopter over fallen trees, twisted metal and towering piles of rubble within the normally tourist-friendly downtown Asheville.
From the air, Biden saw flooded streets, piles of shredded wood and shifting sandbags, ambulances and downed power lines. In one area, houses were partially submerged and it was difficult to tell apart between lake and land.
Visits to disaster zones are a well-recognized task for Biden, who is usually called upon to evaluate damage and luxury victims after tornadoes, wildfires and tropical storms. But this was Harris' first visit to a disaster zone as vp.
Because of the destruction where Biden was on Wednesday, he was unable to walk around and luxury people in person, as Harris did in Georgia.
Biden wore a vest and boots, and before his flight tour, he hugged and grabbed the hand of Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer, who was on the airport in Greenville, South Carolina, to satisfy him. The mayor, with visible emotion. said they may not close the world's only drivable road to Biden's motorcade.
Biden will likely be back within the region on Thursday to go to Florida and Georgia, and Harris is planning her own trip to North Carolina in the approaching days – as Helene's aftermath continues to pose a political and humanitarian test for the administration.
Before leaving Washington, Biden specifically mentioned that a protracted strike by dock employees could complicate supplies to the hardest-hit areas.
“Natural disasters are incredibly consequential. The last thing we need beyond that is a man-made disaster happening at the ports,” he said. “We are already encountering resistance. We are hearing from people in the region that they are having difficulty getting the products they need because of the port strike.”
Harris is being watched particularly as her bid for the White House enters its final stages and Helene's path included the battleground states of Georgia and North Carolina.
The vp most recently visited natural disaster scenes as a California senator, including when she traveled to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017 and when she walked through charred rubble in Paradise, California, after the 2018 Camp Fire.
Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Harris' campaign manager and former state director in her Senate office, said the vp uses her experience as a courtroom prosecutor, comforting victims, and connecting with people after tragedies.
She said the trip to Georgia was a probability for Harris to “continue to demonstrate her leadership and her ability to get things done, unlike Donald Trump and JD Vance, who have championed primary care and the role that government should play.” , wish to dismantle.”
Trump, the Republican candidate, traveled to Valdosta, Georgia, on Monday with a Christian charity that brought trucks with fuel, food, water and other supplies. The former president accused Biden of “sleeping” and never responding to calls from Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. However, Kemp had spoken to Biden the day before and the governor said the state was getting every thing it needed.
Biden was offended about Trump's claim, saying Trump “lied, and the governor told him he lied.”
The storm's death toll rose to a minimum of 178 people, and electricity, running water and cell phones remained unavailable in some places. Later Wednesday, Biden flew to Raleigh, North Carolina, for a briefing with officials and called Helene a “storm of historic proportions.”
“The nation stands behind you,” Biden said.
Harris and Biden's tone was very different from that of Trump, who claimed without evidence that Democratic leaders were withholding aid from Republican areas. He recently threatened to disclaim wildfire aid to California due to disagreements with Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.
When Trump was president, Puerto Rico was devastated by Hurricane Maria, which killed 3,000 people. His administration waited until fall 2020, just weeks before the presidential election, to release $13 billion in aid for Puerto Rico's reconstruction. A federal watchdog also found that Trump administration officials obstructed an investigation into aid delays.
image credit : www.boston.com