By EFE
06 Oct 2024, 09:29 AM EDT
The vice president of the United States and Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, arrived in North Carolina to assess the damage caused by Hurricane Helene in what is the state most impacted by the powerful cyclone, and where she highlighted the response that the Federal Government, which will be, he said, “long term.”
Harris was received on the runway at Charlotte Douglas International Airport by the state governor, also a Democrat, Roy Cooper, and the administrator of the Federal Disaster Management Agency (FEMA), Deanne Criswell, as well as the mayor of Charlotte, Vi Lyles, and local legislators and officials.
During a briefing, the Democratic candidate highlighted the “extraordinary work” that FEMA has carried out on the ground, in coordination with local agencies, and also thanked the local “heroes” who have stepped up to help strangers and provide them with shelter and aid.
“The work being done here to positively impact so many people is truly an example of the best we can do when we bring together resources at the federal, state and local levels,” Harris said, according to the group of journalists accompanying her.
“I think these moments of crisis bring out the best in who we could be and who we are,” added the candidate, during what is her second visit to the disaster zone, after the visit she made this week to Georgia.
These statements follow the accusation made by his opponent in next November’s general elections, former Republican President Donald Trump, who this week pointed out that the federal government is not helping those affected by Helene because it has spent its funds on helping migrants arriving in the United States.
On Friday, Andrew Bates, one of the White House spokespersons, criticized “some Republican leaders” who are using the devastation caused by Helene, which has caused more than 215 deaths, to “lie” and “divide” the country, just one month before the November 5 elections.
At the end of the briefing, the vice president joined a group of volunteers and victims to pack bags of basic products, to whom she assured that the presence and response of the federal Administration will be “long-term.”
After entering northwest Florida on September 26 as a category 4 hurricane, Helene left a trail of more than 800 kilometers of devastation across states in the southeastern United States, with particular intensity in North Carolina.
Federal aid to the affected states so far reaches $110 million, as announced this Saturday by FEMA, which also coordinates up to 6,400 members of emergency personnel for response tasks.
Harris visited North Carolina a day after Trump did the same in Georgia, where he reiterated his criticism of the federal response for those affected by Helene, and then held a campaign rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina and near a base military.
This same afternoon, former President Trump returned to Butler, Pennsylvania, where on July 13 he was the target of a notorious assassination attempt while giving a rally.
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- Kamala Harris toured one of the cities most devastated by Hurricane Helene in Georgia