By Trevor Hunnicutt, Jeff Mason and Stephanie Kelly
RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) -President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris visited South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia on Wednesday to see first hand the devastation wrought in the U.S. Southeast by Hurricane Helene, which has killed at least 160 people.
Biden landed in Greer, South Carolina, where he was met by South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham and North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, among others, before boarding Marine One for an aerial tour of the region.
From the helicopter, Biden could see the grim devastation brought to parts of North Carolina, including Asheville and Chimney Rock. Over the Asheville metropolitan area, homes were smashed to bits, with the damage greatest near rivers, reporters in a trailing helicopter observed.
Many of the people living in the area remained cut off from contact with the outside world, even as the U.S. president passed overhead.
In Asheville's River Arts District, set alongside the French Broad River, the receding floodwaters left behind chaos. Rescuers continue to scour the state's mountains for survivors.
"You can see homes that have moved clearly from one side of the river down the river to another side," Biden said in Raleigh, North Carolina, before an operational briefing. "And I can only imagine what it's like to have been in one of those homes."
"It's going to cost billions of dollars to deal with this storm and all the communities affected," Biden said.
Harris, meanwhile, was briefed in Augusta, Georgia, alongside Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff and Representative Rick Allen. She joined Augusta Mayor Garnett Johnson to survey the city's Meadowbrook neighborhood.
"There is real pain and trauma that has resulted because of this hurricane and what has happened in terms of the aftermath of it," Harris said, adding that she had spoken with a community member whose daughter lost her husband.
"We are here for the long haul," Harris said. "There's a lot of work that's going to happen." Rebuilding will be extremely costly and take years, U.S. officials say.
FEMA, NATIONAL GUARD DEPLOYED
Former President Donald Trump, a Republican running against Harris in this year's presidential election, has falsely claimed that Biden, a Democrat, has been unresponsive to the hurricane's destruction, an allegation local officials deny.
"In a moment like this, we put politics aside," Biden said in Raleigh. "There are no Democrats, Republicans, there are only Americans. And our job is to help as many people as we can, as quickly as we can and as thoroughly as we can."
Before leaving Washington, Biden directed up to 1,000 active-duty troops to help with response and recovery efforts. Almost 6,000 members of the National Guard are deployed across the six states affected by the storm, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said.
Search-and-rescue teams have conducted nearly 1,500 structural evaluations and hundreds of rescues and evacuations, Mayorkas said.
Biden also approved on Wednesday requests from Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and North Carolina's Cooper for federal funds for debris removal and emergency protective measures for three months and six months, respectively.
Biden will head to Georgia and Florida on Thursday, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said.
Harris will travel to North Carolina in the coming days.
More than $10 million has been provided directly to those affected by the storm, Jean-Pierre said.
Over 4,800 personnel from across the federal workforce have been deployed to help in recovery efforts, along with 8.8 million meals, more than 7.4 million liters of water and 150 emergency power generators, said Mayorkas.
Still, the Homeland Security secretary said federal funding may not be enough should another hurricane hit.
"We are meeting the moment, but that doesn't speak about the future," Mayorkas said. "We are expecting another hurricane hitting. ... FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season."
POTENTIAL ELECTION EFFECTS
North Carolina and Georgia are among seven key battleground states in the Nov. 5 election, which is expected to be won by thin margins. Harris now leads Trump by 2.6 percentage points in national opinion polls, according to aggregator FiveThirtyEight.
North Carolina election officials are scrambling to make sure the state's over 7 million registered voters can cast a ballot in federal, state and local elections.
Earlier this week, Trump visited Georgia. Presidents and presidential candidates usually do not visit a storm-hit region immediately because of fears they will distract from rescue efforts and divert resources from local law enforcement officials and emergency responders.
Hurricane Helene slammed into Florida on Thursday as a powerful Category 4 hurricane before tearing a destructive path through Southeastern states for several days.