TOWNS AND VILLAGES CUT OFF
Biden, who has approved major disaster declarations in several states, announced the deployment of up to 1,000 active-duty soldiers to North Carolina to help “speed up the delivery of life-saving supplies” including food, water, and medicine to isolated communities.
While getting briefed in the state, he spoke of Washington’s obligation to provide help.
“In a moment like this we put politics aside,” he said. “The nation has your back.”
But he also warned how climate change is increasing the severity and frequency of extreme weather events.
“Nobody can deny the impact of the climate crisis anymore, at least I hope they don’t,” Biden said. “They must be brain-dead if they do.”
Harris, who replaced Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee for the Nov 5 election, flew separately to the southern state of Georgia, which has also been badly hit.
She visited an emergency operations centre in Augusta before surveying a neighbourhood that suffered what she called “extraordinary” devastation.
Debris was scattered across the road and trees lay crashed onto homes near where the vice president comforted grieving residents.
Harris assured Georgians the federal government was coordinating with local authorities to “get folks the support and the relief that they so desperately need and so rightly deserve”.
“We are here for the long haul,” she said.
Harris also helped hand out styrofoam containers of food to impacted families at a shelter, and received loud cheers when she departed.
