President Joe Biden remained lounging at the beach this weekend while Appalachian valleys in North Carolina and Tennessee suffered deadly flooding from Hurricane Helene.
As of Sunday morning, dozens had died across the southeastern United States, but the death toll is likely to rise following the torrential downpour from the Category 4 storm that smashed into the Big Bend of Florida on Thursday.
Biden’s public schedule had him depart for Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on Friday, the day after the hurricane’s initial landfall. He was initially expected to be there through late Sunday evening, but the president reportedly returned to Washington earlier on Sunday as tensions escalate in the Middle East.
Floodwaters almost completely isolated the North Carolina city of Asheville from the outside world, breaking roads and knocking out power and cell service. State officials are scrambling to airlift supplies into the region. Ryan Cole, the assistant director for emergency services in Buncombe County, said the “Biblical” flooding had wrought devastation in the area.
“You’ve heard us say, ‘catastrophic devastation within our county.’ I would go a little bit further and say we have Biblical devastation through the county,” Cole told reporters Saturday. “We’ve had Biblical flooding here, and it has been extremely significant.”
“We are in the midst of the most significant natural disaster in our community,” said Buncombe County Manager Avril Pinder, according to The New York Times.
At least 10 deaths were reported from North Carolina, per the local press, while 17 were reported killed in Georgia, including children, according to NBC. The New York Times reported Saturday that in eastern Tennessee, officials are bracing residents for “life lost” after roughly half a dozen went missing when floodwaters similarly swept through idyllic mountain communities throughout the region, collapsing bridges and destroying homes. The overwhelming rains nearly broke a dam on the Nolichucky River in Greenville, Tennessee when water levels eclipsed 8 feet above record elevation.
“President Joe Biden said Saturday that Helene’s devastation has been ‘overwhelming’ and pledged to send help,” the Associated Press reported. But the president announced no plans to visit the South despite Hurricane Helene becoming the “deadliest tropical cyclone” for South Carolina, with 25 dead, “since Hurricane Hugo killed 35 people” in 1989.
“President Biden and I continue to work with local leaders in the southeast to provide support as they face the impacts of Hurricane Helene and begin to recover,” Vice President Kamala Harris said in a post on X.
“More than 1,500 federal personnel have been deployed, including power restoration and search and rescue teams,” she added, but has made no plans to visit the flooding region where millions are still without power.
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