Biden to deploy 1,000 troops to help North Carolina after Helene

President Joe Biden said he ordered the Pentagon to send up to 1,000 active-duty troops to help with recovery operations in North Carolina, ahead of a trip to one of the states hardest hit by Hurricane Helene to survey the damage the storm.

“These Soldiers will expedite the delivery of life-saving food, water and medicine to isolated communities across North Carolina — they have the manpower and logistical capabilities to do this vital work quickly,” Biden said in a statement. Wednesday. He said the troops will join hundreds of North Carolina National Guard members already deployed to help in the response.

Biden’s action comes as both he and Vice President Kamala Harris plan to separately visit parts of the southeastern U.S. devastated by Helene to reassure affected communities about the federal response, while Republican Donald Trump tries to from the administration’s handling of the disaster to a 2024 election issue.

Related: Hurricane Helene Shuts Down Bird Crops, Damages Cotton Crops

Biden will visit affected areas in both North and South Carolina on Wednesday and meet with first responders, while Harris will visit Augusta, Georgia, where he will talk about the federal government’s actions to help residents. Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, also plans to visit North Carolina in the coming days, according to the White House.

But their trips come two days after Harris’ rival, former President Trump, visited Georgia. Trump suggested the administration was not doing enough to help hard-hit communities and sought to rebuke Harris for being on the campaign trail in the west of the state, which included fundraisers in California as the storm hit, and Biden for handling the initial response from his home in Rehoboth Beach. Delaware.

The hurricane has become a political test for Harris and Trump as they try to portray themselves to voters as capable of handling major crises and threaten to alter voters’ perceptions of the candidates.

Economic impact

Helene has torn a path of destruction across the southeast, and even as the floods recede, the region faces a humanitarian and economic crisis. There are at least 166 confirmed dead in six states and countless others displaced. The federal government reported 29 shelters open, with more than 1,000 occupants.

Parts of the region are still struggling to reopen roads and reconnect power from a storm that at its peak knocked out power to more than 4 million homes and businesses.

Cotton crops that were about to be harvested were flattened and parts of the power grid were destroyed. Crop losses alone could generate $7 billion in insurance payouts, a U.S. Department of Agriculture official estimated Tuesday. Helene also halted mining operations in North Carolina, which produce high-purity quartz used to make silicon wafers, causing a jolt to the global semiconductor industry.

Route 9 in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene on October 1, 2024 in Bat Cave, North Carolina. Photographer: Sean Rayford/Getty Images

The storm, coupled with a major strike by dockworkers that has shut down ports along the East and Gulf coasts, threatens to have a disruptive impact on the economy ahead of an election in which voter frustration with how the Biden administration has handled high prices for goods and services are a defining concern for the electorate.

Related: AccuWeather puts total damage and economic losses from Helene at $145 billion to $160 billion

An early projection of AccuWeather Inc. predicted that total economic damage from Helene could reach $160 billion. That would make it one of the five costliest storms in US history.

Electoral optics

Trump tried to cast himself as better suited to help those affected, saying during his visit to Georgia that he encouraged billionaire Elon Musk to offer his Starlink satellite broadband systems to help reconnect communities — even if the Biden administration said it already uses the technology. to restore communications.

Trump’s claims that more could be done appeared to bother Biden, who spoke from the White House on Monday to detail the federal actions and also defended the coordination of the Delaware response. And he took umbrage at Trump’s claim that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp had failed to reach out to Biden for help when, in fact, he had spoken to the president.

Related: Helene triggers flooding, knocks out power to millions

“He’s lying,” Biden said. “It’s irresponsible.”

However, as the election nears and early voting is already underway in some states, the president — and Harris, who replaced him at the top of their party’s ticket — have been shuffling their schedules and trying to show voters that pool government resources to weather the storm. result.

Top photo: Route 9 in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene on October 1, 2024 in Bat Cave, North Carolina. Photographer: Sean Rayford/Getty Images.

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