Biden and Harris view devastating Hurricane Helene damage

Visits by US leadership follow Republican Donald Trump two days earlier amid a tight presidential election

Marine One, carrying US President Joe Biden, flies above a storm-affected area near Greenville, South Carolina. AFP

US President Joe Biden saw first-hand the damage from Hurricane Helene on Wednesday, as part of an effort by him and Vice President Kamala Harris to reassure Americans of the federal response to a disaster that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has sought to make an election issue.

Mr Biden flew over affected communities in South and North Carolina, seeing the devastation left by the powerful storm. The President will visit Florida and Georgia on Thursday.

Over the Asheville metropolitan area in North Carolina, homes were smashed to pieces, with damage greatest near rivers, Reuters reported. Many of the people living in the area remained cut off from contact with the outside world, even as the American President passed over their heads.

Meanwhile, Ms Harris arrived in Georgia on Wednesday and plans to visit North Carolina.

She received updates from the mayor of Asheville – one of the hardest-hit towns – and repeated the administration’s support. “These are very difficult times,” she said. “I'm here to thank you and to listen.”

Ms Harris visited an operations centre in Augusta where she praised emergency workers and the continuing response.

“It really does represent some of the best of what we each know can be done, especially when we co-ordinate around local, state, federal resources to meet the needs of people who must be seen, who must be heard,” she said.

Afterwards, Ms Harris met residents in a storm-ravaged Augusta neighbourhood, AFP reported. Debris was scattered across the road and toppled trees were visible.

The parallel trips offered a public demonstration aimed at countering criticism from Mr Trump – Ms Harris’s Republican rival – that the administration is not doing enough to help battered communities, five weeks before election day.

Helene tore a path of destruction across the US south-east 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 many others displaced.

Earlier on Wednesday, Mr Biden said he had directed the Pentagon to send up to 1,000 active-duty troops to help with recovery operations in North Carolina.

Parts of the storm-hit region are still struggling to reopen roads and reconnect power after the hurricane that, at its peak, knocked out electricity to more than four million homes and businesses.

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

Two days earlier, Mr Trump visited Georgia, where he rebuked Ms Harris for being on a campaign swing that included fundraisers in California while the storm hit, and Mr Biden for handling the initial response from his home in Delaware.

Mr Trump said during his Georgia visit that he had 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, Bloomberg reported.

Mr Trump's comments appeared to have rankled Mr Biden. He bristled at the claim that Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia had been unable to reach him to ask for help when he had, in fact, spoken to the President.

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

Still, with the election nearing and early voting already under way in some states, the President – and Ms Harris, who supplanted him at the top of their party’s ticket – have shuffled their schedules and sought to demonstrate to voters that they are marshalling the government’s resources to deal with the storm’s aftermath.

North Carolina and Georgia are among seven key battleground states in the November 5 election, which is expected to be won by thin margins.

North Carolina election officials are rushing to make sure that the state's more than seven million registered voters can cast a ballot in federal, state and local elections.