100 deaths put Hurricane Helene at election center stage / Photo: © GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
100 deaths put Hurricane Helene at election center stage
A storm that caused destructive flooding across the US southeast became a major presidential election issue Monday, as Donald Trump hurried to the impact zone and the White House refuted criticism of its emergency response.
With the death toll crossing 100, rescuers searched for survivors and delivered supplies across Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee where torrential rains brought by Hurricane Helene brought widespread havoc.
Georgia and North Carolina are among the key swing states where the election will be decided in just five weeks' time.
Trump arrived in Valdosta, Georgia -- an epicenter of the flooding destruction -- vowing to "bring lots of relief material, including fuel, equipment, water, and other things" to those in need.
Without providing evidence, he claimed his Republican Party supporters were being denied help.
"The federal government is not being responsive," he told reporters. "The vice president, she's out someplace, campaigning, looking for money."
Trump's Democrat opponent Vice President Kamala Harris canceled campaign events to return to Washington for a briefing on the federal response, and will visit the region after the first wave of emergency operations.
President Joe Biden pointedly said that he would also not visit immediately, saying "it'd be disruptive."
"We will not do that if we are diverting or delaying any of the response assets needed to deal with this crisis."
The White House rejected criticism by Trump that Biden and Harris did not respond to the disaster quickly enough.
Harris was on a campaign trip in California over the weekend, while Biden was at his beach house in Delaware and did not return to the White House until Sunday afternoon.
Trump accused Biden of "sleeping" instead of dealing with the storm damage.
"I was commanding, I was on the phone for at least two hours yesterday, and the day before as well," the president said Monday when asked about the criticisms. "I command, it's called a telephone."
- Drowned in their homes -
At least 108 people were killed -- 39 in North Carolina, 25 in South Carolina, 25 in Georgia, 14 in Florida, four in Tennessee and one in Virginia, according to tallies from local authorities compiled by AFP. That total was expected to rise.
Biden said that, with cell phone service knocked out across much of the region, up to 600 people were still unaccounted for.
"God willing they're alive, but there is no way to contact them," he said.
The sheriff's office in Pinellas County, Florida, published a grim litany of the nine bodies found there so far, almost all of whom died in their own 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.
Residents face power cuts, supply shortages, blocked roads and broken communication lines in often mountainous terrain, with Georgia Governor Brian Kemp describing the storm as a "250-mile wide tornado."
More than 205 million households and businesses remained without power on Monday, according to tracker poweroutage.us.
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said Monday that hundreds of roads had been destroyed and many communities "wiped off the map."
"This is an unprecedented storm," he told reporters. "The emotional and physical toll here is indescribable."
Scientists say climate change likely plays a role in the rapid intensification of hurricanes, because there is more energy in warmer oceans for them to feed on.
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