US President Joe Biden appeared momentarily confused when requested concerning the wants of states affected by Hurricane Helene throughout his go to to the storm-hit area. When questioned by a reporter concerning 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 useless, 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 thousands and 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 verify 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 have now your again,” Biden assured residents throughout his go to to Ray Metropolis, Georgia, the place he surveyed harm 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 the ruins of destroyed properties in Keaton Seashore. “Houses had been simply wiped away, simply a complete island gone,” he stated after the go to, vowing continued federal support for these affected.
Regardless of the intensive response efforts, together with hundreds of federal staff and Nationwide Guard members aiding 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 “should 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.
