‘The nation has your back’: Biden joins Cooper for Helene flyover, promises recovery aid
After taking an aerial tour of damage inflicted by Tropical Storm Helene in Western North Carolina on Wednesday, President Joe Biden visited North Carolina’s Emergency Operations Center in Raleigh to promise that the federal government will continue to help with the state’s recovery.
“The United States, the nation, has your back. The nation has your back. We’re not leaving until you get back on your feet completely,” Biden said to a roomful of emergency management officials and members of the National Guard.
Gov. Roy Cooper told Biden about challenges ranging from washed-out bridges and roads to damaged water systems and electrical grids to lost homes and businesses.
“An entire region of our state is still in a dangerous situation,” Cooper said.
Earlier Wednesday, Biden approved additional federal resources for the response, including up to 1,000 active duty U.S. Army soldiers from Fort Liberty and 22 aircraft.
“Simply put, we’ve got the capabilities to get the job done and we’re going to get it done as fast as possible,” Biden said.
Biden also said he’d approved a request Wednesday from Cooper to cover all of the costs of debris removal for the next six months. And 50 StarLink satellite links have been deployed, Biden said, with more on the way..
“Folks, it’s going to cost us billions of dollars. It’s going to cost billions of dollars to deal with this storm and all the communities affected, and Congress has an obligation to ensure that states have the resources they need,” Biden said.
NC Emergency Management Director Will Ray told Biden that North Carolina still has about 350,000 people without power, five days after Helene barreled through.
Ray said 24 North Carolina search-and-rescue teams are working in Western North Carolina, along with 13 from other states and 18 from the federal government. Those teams have had more than 5,000 interactions — from rescues to evacuations to shelter inspections — since Helene response began.
“The teams continue to do really incredible work in some pretty austere conditions,” Ray said.
North Carolina is also operating 26 aircraft in Western North Carolina that have airlifted more than 700,000 pounds of supplies, Ray added.
Biden said that since becoming president in 2021, he’d flown over so many downed trees that they would cover an area larger than the state of Maryland, largely from wildfires.
“I’ve seen a lot, but looking at Asheville and just imagining what it must have been like sitting along those rivers and streams as all of that rain came down ... You could see homes that were removed clearly from one side of the river, down the river, to the other side of the river,” Biden said.
Biden thanked Cooper and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, for focusing on the response instead of prioritizing politics. Tuesday, Biden called former President Donald Trump a liar after Trump said he was hearing reports that Cooper and Biden, both Democrats, were not helping parts of the state where large proportions of Republicans live.
“In a moment like this, we put politics aside. Or at least we should put it all aside, and we have here. There are no Democrats or Republicans, only Americans,” Biden said.
Biden closed by saying it is clear that the climate crisis is having an impact in the United States, including strengthening storms like Helene. Those storms like Helene are going to get stronger and stronger as oceans continue to warm, he said.
“Nobody can deny the impact of the climate crisis anymore,” he said. “At least I hope they don’t. They must be brain-dead if they do.”
This story was produced with financial support from the Hartfield Foundation and Green South Foundation, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners, as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. If you would like to help support local journalism, please consider signing up for a digital subscription, which you can do here.
This story was originally published October 2, 2024 at 7:47 PM.