Hurricane Helene ravaged parts of the southeastern United States over the weekend. The category 4 storm has killed more than 100 people, leveled entire towns, and destroyed critical infrastructure. Nowhere has the devastation been more pronounced than in the Carolinas, where mudslides and widespread flooding have created apocalyptic scenes and left emergency responders scrambling to provide aid.
Helene's 500-mile path of destruction includes Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and Tennessee. In North Carolina, 37 fatalities have been reported, and hundreds remain missing. Buncombe County, the seat of Ashville, has become the national epicenter of the disaster.
Asheville and surrounding towns in western North Carolina have lost power and cellular communications, and have been cut off from the rest of the state as the storm washed away entire roads. The city's central water system was severely damaged, cutting off residents from basic life-sustaining resources as Helene dissipated.
“Many people are cut off because roads are impassable, they don't have power or communications. Please know that we are sending resources and coordinating closely with local governments, first responders, state and federal partners, and volunteer organizations to help those impacted by this tragic storm,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) said on Sunday.
On Saturday, President Joe Biden approved Major Disaster declarations in Florida and North Carolina, as well as emergency declarations Florida, North Carolina Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and Alabama. According to the White House, “more than 3,300 personnel from across the federal workforce are deployed and supporting Hurricane Helene response efforts across the impacted states.” This includes a widespread response from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
The destruction of major roadways surrounding the Asheville area, as well as days of flooding, presented challenges to first responders. Relief supplies have been airlifted into the area, and relief agencies are working to restore communications across the southeast. “We are working hard to get as many supplies in there — water obviously is a big thing,” Gov. Cooper told Spectrum News over the weekend. “The problem is everything is flooded. It is very difficult for them to see exactly what the problems are.”
“The priority now is saving lives,” Cooper added, “because [given] the lack of communications there may be people who are still in trouble.”
President Biden said on Sunday that he hopes to visit areas impacted by Hurricane Helene “as soon as it will not disrupt emergency response operations.”
In a Monday press conference, Kemp lauded the support he'd received from lawmakers across American politics. “Just know we will work in a bipartisan way on disaster relief in this state without — with all partners,” he told reporters.
Despite the widespread federal mobilization in response to Helene, the crisis has already been weaponized by former President Donald Trump as a cudgel against Vice President Kamala Harris and the Biden administration.
During a Sunday campaign rally in Pennsylvania, Trump accused Biden of “sleeping” through the disaster and bashed Harris for campaigning over the weekend. The Harris campaign canceled several planned events on Monday — after the VP was briefed by FEMA officials on the disaster relief efforts — and announced plans to visit affected communities as soon as it was prudent for the work of first responders.
Trump announced a visit to Valdosta, Georgia, on Monday, where he is expected to help distribute relief supplies. Georgia's Republican Governor Brian Kemp will not appear alongside the former president, and will instead be traveling to Augusta, Georgia, to help coordinate the area's emergency response.
The former president drew backlash for capitalizing politically on the disaster while continuing to bash climate change as “one of the great scams of all time,” during a rally on Sunday, as communities devastated by Helene began to grapple with the damage and the loss of loved ones.
That same day, FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell told Face the Nation that the intensity and destruction of hurricanes were increasing because the warming temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico were “creating more storms that are reaching this major category level than we've seen in the past.”
Climate scientists have warned for decades that rising global temperatures will lead to a cascading chain of disasters that will devastate communities all over the globe — particularly coastal ones.
Earlier this summer, Trump told Elon Musk that the only real outcome of climate change would be that “you'll have more oceanfront property.”
