Relief operations continued Tuesday in the southeast of the United States, several days after the passage of Hurricane “Helene” which caused at least 155 deaths, while Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will travel separately to disaster areas.
• Also read: Woman says Hurricane Helene is God’s punishment of Republican states
• Also read: The impressive images of destruction caused by Hurricane “Helene”
Several areas remain inaccessible by road and more than 1.4 million homes and businesses were still without electricity as of 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to the specialized site poweroutage.us.
“We know that the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene is beyond imaginable,” North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said Tuesday.
His state, the most affected by the hurricane, deplored at least 74 deaths on Tuesday.
“Localities have been wiped off the map,” added the governor during a press conference, specifying that the authorities expected the toll to get even worse.
Liz Sherwood-Randall, Joe Biden’s homeland security adviser, said Monday that the authorities had not heard from 600 people, saying however that she hoped that some of these people had remained “alive”.
President Biden will travel to North Carolina on Wednesday, while Vice-President Kamala Harris, Democratic presidential candidate on November 5, will travel to Georgia, where 25 deaths have been recorded.
Their respective trips come as the response of the federal authorities to the disaster has become part of the presidential campaign. Georgia and North Carolina are among seven key states that could swing the election.
Virulent Biden
Donald Trump visited a town in Georgia affected by the hurricane on Monday, and accused the federal state of not being “reactive” in the face of the scale of the disaster. The Republican candidate had also earlier accused the authorities in North Carolina, led by Democrat Roy Cooper, of “deliberately not helping people in Republican areas”.
“He’s lying,” retorted a virulent Joe Biden. “What makes me angry (is that he) implies that we are not doing everything that is possible (…) It is false and it is irresponsible.”
Joe Biden had previously indicated that he would not travel as long as it could disrupt relief operations.
In South Carolina, at least 36 deaths have been recorded, while Florida has 14, Tennessee four and Virginia two, according to a report compiled Tuesday by AFP from statements by local authorities.
Rescuers continue to work to try to find survivors and bring food to residents hit by the disaster, sometimes still cut off from the world.
In the south of the Appalachian Mountains, “Helene” caused flash floods with impressive damage.
Images from around Asheville, North Carolina, show neighborhoods razed here, roads destroyed there by a flooded river. Due to lack of access by road, the authorities are sending relief supplies, water and foodstuffs by air.
For Joe Biden, there is “no doubt” that these devastations are due to climate change which, by warming the waters of the seas, makes, according to scientists, the rapid intensification of storms more likely and increases the risk of more powerful hurricanes.
