With 130 dead from Hurricane Helene, Biden defends US government response
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The death toll from a devastating storm that battered the southeastern United States climbed to 130 on Sept 30.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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VALDOSTA, Georgia – The death toll from a devastating storm that battered the south-eastern US climbed to at least 130 on Sept 30, as the disaster became a hot topic in an already bitter election campaign, with the White House angrily refuting claims it had been slow to respond.
With hundreds still missing across several south-eastern US states and the death toll rising, President Joe Biden announced he would travel to storm-ravaged North Carolina on Oct 2 to monitor rescue efforts.
Mr Biden also accused former president Donald Trump of spreading lies, after the Republican presidential candidate charged, without evidence, that the federal government was ignoring the disaster brought on by Hurricane Helene and denying help to his supporters.
“He’s lying,” Mr Biden told reporters in the Oval Office, adding that he had spoken to North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper.
“(I)... told him (Trump)’s lying. I don’t know why he does it... that’s simply not true, and it’s irresponsible,” added Mr Biden.
Later on CNN, Mr Cooper, a Democrat, said when asked about Trump’s accusations of Republican victims being ignored: “It makes no difference who you are. If you need help, we are going to provide it.
“And if there is ever a time when we all need to come together and put politics aside, it is now.”
At least 130 people were killed
Emergency workers continued a grim search for hundreds of people still unaccounted for across the affected states, where torrential rain brought widespread havoc.
They also worked to restore water and power supply to the affected areas, remove fallen trees, deliver supplies and register people for disaster assistance.
Biden accused of ‘sleeping’
With Mr Biden preparing to head to North Carolina, Trump on Sept 30 arrived in Georgia, another epicentre of the destruction.
Both are among the key swing states where the US election will be decided in just five weeks.
In the city of Valdosta, Georgia, Trump vowed to “bring lots of relief material, including fuel, equipment, water and other things” to those in need.
“The federal government is not being responsive,” he told reporters. “The Vice-President, she’s out someplace, campaigning, looking for money,” he said, referring to his election rival, Ms Kamala Harris.
“We’re not talking about politics now,” he said later, wearing a bright red “Make America Great Again” hat while standing in the rubble of a furniture store.
Ms Harris cancelled campaign events
“Over the past few days, our nation has endured some of the worst destruction and devastation that we have seen in quite some time,” Ms Harris said following the briefing.
“And we have responded with our best, with the best folks who are on the ground and here doing the kind of work that is about rising to a moment of crisis.”
Responding to Trump’s criticism that he was “sleeping” instead of dealing with the storm damage, Mr Biden defended his decision to spend the weekend at his home in Delaware, saying he was working “the whole time”.
When a major natural disaster hits the US, the federal government responds at the request of states. A president’s role is usually to oversee and coordinate aid, including funding.
Scientists say climate change most likely plays a role in the rapid intensification of hurricanes, because there is more energy in warmer oceans for them to feed on, and Mr Biden stressed as much on Sept 30.
“Absolutely, positively, unequivocally, yes, yes, yes, yes,” Mr Biden told reporters in the Oval Office when asked if climate change was to blame for the trail of destruction left by the storm.
Drowned in their homes
The sheriff’s office in Pinellas County, Florida, published a grim litany of the nine lives lost there so far, with almost all those people found dead in their homes.
Nearly all appeared to have drowned, it said, describing some found still lying in several inches of water, while others were buried under debris.
In Georgia, residents faced power cuts, supply shortages, blocked roads and broken communication lines in often mountainous terrain, with Governor Brian Kemp describing the storm as a “250-mile wide tornado”.
More than 1.6 million households and businesses remained without power on Sept 30, according to tracker poweroutage.us.
Mr Cooper, the North Carolina Governor, said on Sept 30 that hundreds of roads had been destroyed and many communities were “wiped off the map”.
“This is an unprecedented storm,” he told reporters. “The emotional and physical toll here is indescribable.” AFP
