President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced the immediate deployment of 1,000 active-duty troops to aid with recovery efforts from Hurricane Helene.
The president made the announcement ahead of his trip to North and South Carolina on Wednesday and Florida and Georgia to survey storm damage.
“These soldiers will speed up the delivery of life-saving supplies of food, water, and medicine to isolated communities in North Carolina – they have the manpower and logistical capabilities to get this vital job done, and fast,” Biden said in a statement. “They will join hundreds of North Carolina National Guard members deployed under State authorities in support of the response.”
The soldiers are part of an Infantry Battalion Task Force, based out of Fort Liberty, North Carolina, the White House said, and are in addition to the other U.S. military personnel who are already helping FEMA with recovery efforts. U.S. Army and Navy helicopters, soldiers and sailors are helping to move personnel and resources into areas that are hard to access, U.S. Air Force aircraft, helicopters and personnel are helping with search-and-rescue efforts, and the Army Corps of Engineers is helping to support debris removal, water management, bridge inspections and other efforts.
“Hurricane Helene has been a storm of historic proportion,” Biden pledged. "My heart goes out to everyone who has experienced unthinkable loss. We are here for you – and we will stay here for as long as it takes.”
Biden’s announcement comes as the death toll from the storm has approached 160, with power and cellular service outages still ongoing. The toll, officials said, is expected to rise, since much of the storm impacted remote, inland areas that emergency teams have yet to reach. The American Red Cross said Tuesday it has fielded more than 3,000 calls in the last 24 hours from people searching for missing loved ones.
Both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, his running mate-turned-Democratic presidential nominee, surveyed storm damage in the Southeast on Wednesday — visiting states that were not only ravaged by the storm, but are crucial to next month’s presidential election. After his stops in the Carolinas, Biden will head to Florida and Georgia on Thursday, according to the White House.
Harris visited Georgia on Wednesday, another battleground state, and met with officials at an emergency response center in Augusta. The city’s mayor, Garnett Johnson, called the storm “the worst in the history of our city” and said it “means a lot” that Harris was there.
“I've been reading and hearing about the work you've been doing over the last few days, and I think it really does represent some of the best of what we each know can be done, especially when we coordinate around local, state and federal resources to meet the needs of people who must be seen, must be heard,” Harris said. “I am now listening.”
Later, Harris spoke to the media alongside Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff. The vice president said she had spoken to a woman in the area who lost her husband in the hurricane. She also announced the federal government would reimburse local governments for 100% of their recovery effort costs.
“My final point to the residents of this community and the region is that we are here for the long haul,” Harris said.
Harris’ rival, Donald Trump, also toured Georgia on Monday. Trump touted supplies, like food and fuel, brought by evangelist Franklin Graham’s charity organization.
During his visit, Trump falsely claimed that the Biden administration hadn't been helping and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp had been unable to get President Joe Biden on the phone.
The White House previously announced that Biden spoke by phone on Sunday night with Kemp and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, as well as Valdosta Mayor Scott Matheson and Florida Emergency Management Director John Louk. Kemp confirmed Monday morning that he spoke to Biden the night before.
“The president just called me yesterday afternoon, and I missed him and called him right back and he just said ‘Hey, what do you need?’ And I told him, you know, we’ve got what we need, we’ll work through the federal process,” Kemp said. “He offered if there are other things we need just to call him directly, which I appreciate that."
Biden, infuriated by Trump's comment, said later Monday that Trump was "lying, and the governor told him he was lying."
“I don’t know why he does this,” Biden continued. “I don’t care about what he says about me, but I care what he what he communicates to people that are in need. He implies that we’re not doing everything possible. We are. We are."
Other governors, like South Carolina Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, have praised Biden and his administration's response to the storm. McMaster, a staunch Trump ally, called the federal response "superb" on Tuesday.
"I finally was able to speak to the president yesterday afternoon after he missed me and I missed him," McMaster said. "He left a voicemail, I left a voicemail, so we finally connected yesterday afternoon. He said 'whatever we need to let him know,' and we're doing that."
"We're getting assistance and we're asking for everything we need," the South Carolina Republican added, praising Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell as well.
All told, FEMA has so far sent 3,500 personnel to support a complex recovery in the four states that have been declared emergencies, including 1,250 urban search and rescue personnel and 150 ambulances. The Department of Health and Human Services has also dispatched a portable morgue to North Carolina.
Since Thursday, when Hurricane Helene made landfall, 17 counties in Florida, 11 counties in Georgia, 13 counties in South Carolina and 25 counties in North Carolina have been declared emergencies eligible for disaster relief and emergency assistance. Hurricane Helene is one of the deadliest and costliest storms to ever hit the United States.
More than 150,000 households have so far registered for assistance through the FEMA — a number the agency expects “to rapidly increase over the coming days,” FEMA Individual Assistance Director Frank Matranga said during a briefing Tuesday.
FEMA has also shipped over 8.5 million meals, more than 7 million liters of water, 150 generators and over 220,000 tarps to aid response efforts, per the White House. The agency has also provided 50 Starlink satellite systems and 65 satellite phones to aid communications, and thousands of personnel from across the federal workforce have been deployed to the region, with more to come in the days ahead.
Biden is set to fly into Greenville, South Carolina, where he'll view storm damage from above, before traveling to Raleigh, North Carolina, to be briefed by officials.
Harris will head to North Carolina "in the coming days," per the White House.
Spectrum News' Susan Carpenter and Maddie Gannon contributed to this report.