Biden to Deploy 1,000 Troops to Aid North Carolina After Helene

President Joe Biden said he directed the Pentagon to send up to 1,000 active duty troops to help with recovery operations in North Carolina ahead of a trip to one of the states hardest hit by Hurricane Helene to survey the storm’s damage firsthand.

“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 on Wednesday. He said the troops would join hundreds of North Carolina National Guard members already deployed to aid in the response.

Biden’s action comes as both he and Vice President Kamala Harris plan to separately tour parts of the US southeast devastated by Helene to reassure affected communities of the federal response as Republican Donald Trump seeks to make the administration’s handling of the disaster a 2024 election issue.

Biden will tour affected areas in both North Carolina and South Carolina on Wednesday and meet with first responders, while Harris will visit Augusta, Georgia, where she will speak on the federal government’s actions to help residents. Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, also intends to visit North Carolina in the coming days, according to the White House.

Their trips though come two days after Harris’ general-election rival, former President Trump, visited Georgia. Trump has suggested the administration is not doing enough to help battered communities and sought to rebuke Harris for being on a western-state campaign swing that included fundraisers in California while the storm hit and Biden for handling the initial response from his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

The hurricane has become a political test for Harris and Trump as they seek to present themselves to voters as able to handle major crises and threatens to alter voter perceptions of the candidates.

Economic Impact

Helene tore a path of destruction across the southeast and even as the floodwaters recede the region faces a humanitarian and economic crisis. There are at least 166 confirmed dead across six states and countless others displaced. The federal government reported 29 shelters open, with more than 1,000 occupants.

Parts of the region are still struggling to reopen roads and reconnect power from a storm that at its peak knocked out electricity to more than 4 million homes and businesses.

Cotton crops that were on the verge of harvest were flattened and parts of the power grid have been destroyed. Crop losses alone could trigger $7 billion in insurance payouts, according to an estimate from a US Department of Agriculture official on Tuesday. Helene also halted mining operations in North Carolina that produce high-purity quartz used to make silicon wafers, dealing a jolt to the global semiconductor industry.

A member of the Maryland National Guard jogs to a helicopter at a supply drop point in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene near Bat Cave, North Carolina, on October 1, 2024.

North Carolina Route 9 in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene on October 1, 2024 in Bat Cave, North Carolina. Photographer: Sean Rayford/Getty Images

The storm, coupled by a major strike by dockworkers that has shuttered ports along the East and Gulf coasts, threatens to have a disruptive impact on the economy ahead of an election in which voter frustration about how the Biden administration has handled high prices for goods and services is a defining concern for the electorate.

An early projection from AccuWeather Inc. predicted total economic damage from Helene could hit $160 billion. That would make it one of the five costliest storms in US history.

Election Optics

Trump has sought to cast himself as better suited to help those affected, saying during his Georgia visit that he encouraged billionaire Elon Musk to offer his Starlink satellite-broadband systems to help reconnect communities — even as the Biden administration said it was already using the technology to restore communications.

Trump’s claims that more could be done appeared to have rankled Biden who on Monday spoke from the White House to detail federal actions and also defended coordinating the response from Delaware. And he bristled at Trump’s claim that Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia had been unable to reach Biden to ask for help when in fact he had spoken to the president.

“He is lying,” Biden said. “It’s irresponsible.”

Still, with the election nearing and early voting already underway in some states, the president — and Harris who supplanted him atop their party’s ticket — have shuffled their schedules and sought to demonstrate to voters that they are marshaling the government’s resources to deal with the storm’s aftermath.

Top photo: North Carolina Route 9 in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene on October 1, 2024 in Bat Cave, North Carolina. Photographer: Sean Rayford/Getty Images.