US President Joe Biden plans to travel to storm-ravaged North Carolina to view the toll from Hurricane Helene as residents face a "post-apocalyptic" landscape with hundreds of people still missing.
Biden told reporters he planned to go to North Carolina on Wednesday after a briefing with the state's governor, Roy Cooper, and Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell.
Biden will participate in a local briefing and an aerial tour of Asheville, he later said on social media platform X. He said he also plans to travel to Georgia and Florida as soon as possible.
On Wednesday, I'll travel to North Carolina for a briefing at the State Emergency Operations Center and to participate in an aerial tour of Asheville.— President Biden (@POTUS) ⁰I've ensured my travel will not disrupt the ongoing response.I plan to travel to Georgia and Florida as soon as possible.September 30, 2024
Biden accused Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump of "lying" on Monday for saying that Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, a Republican, had trouble reaching the White House in the aftermath of the storm.
"That's simply not true, and it's irresponsible," Biden told reporters.
Kemp and Biden confirmed the two spoke on Sunday.
A Trump spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Officials reported more than 100 deaths across a half-dozen states due to Helene, which was a major hurricane when it slammed into Florida's Big Bend region late on Thursday before cutting a destructive path through Georgia and into the Carolinas.
Officials said the death toll was likely to rise even as they clung to hope that emergency responders would find most of those unaccounted for as they reached more locations and as emergency mobile telecommunications services came online.
Residents are stranded without running water and 1.8 million homes and businesses are without power. (AP PHOTO)
As many as 600 people remained unaccounted for, US Homeland Security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall said at the White House.
Throughout North Carolina, some 300 roads were closed, more than 7000 people registered for US Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance, and the National Guard was flying 1000 tonnes of food and water to remote areas by plane and helicopter, officials told the news briefing.
People were stranded without running water and 1.8 million homes and businesses remained without power on Monday, according to the website Poweroutage.us.
Georgia Governor Kemp said at least 25 people in his state had died, including a firefighter responding to emergency calls during the storm and a mother and her one-month-old twins who were killed by a falling tree.
South Carolina reported at least 29 dead. CNN put the national death toll at 128, citing state and local officials.
Went to help in the Lake Lure/Chimney Rock area today, and it's hard to describe - never seen anything like this. Post apocalyptic. It's so overwhelming you don't even know how to fathom what recovery looks like, let alone where to start. Going to be a long path to recovery that… — Tariq Scott Bokhari (@FinTechInnov8r) pic.twitter.com/HnyxwyQB76September 29, 2024
Lake Lure in North Carolina was covered with floating debris from homes and businesses washed away by mountain streams that surround the lake, a video posted on X by Charlotte City Councilman Tariq Bokhari showed.
"It's hard to describe, never seen anything like this, post-apocalyptic," Bokhari wrote. "It's so overwhelming. You don't even know how to fathom what recovery looks like, let alone where to start."
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper took an aerial tour of the damage and said "significant resources" would be needed in the short and long term.
Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris cut short a campaign trip in Nevada on Monday to take part in briefings in Washington on the hurricane response and will visit the region when doing so won't impede response efforts, a White House official said.
Trump travelled to Valdosta, Georgia, on Monday to visit a furniture store that was heavily damaged in the storm.