Harris visits North Carolina after Helene: Times of crisis bring out best of ‘who we are’

Vice President Harris on Saturday traveled to North Carolina to meet with local officials and get an update on the response to Hurricane Helene, which killed dozens of people in the state amid catastrophic flooding.

Harris met with North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Deanne Criswell, Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles (D) and Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer (D). Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Stein was also present for Harris’s visit.

“The work that’s happening here that is so positively impacting so many people is really an example of the best we can do when we bring resources together at the federal, state and local level, and tap into the kind of collegiality that produces results,” Harris said during a briefing with local officials on the response to the storm.

Harris announced the Biden administration had added Mecklenburg County, the second-most populous county in North Carolina, to a major disaster declaration following the hurricane. The move will free up additional resources to help residents get assistance with home repairs, purchasing generators and more.

The vice president praised local officials and residents for “helping each other out, giving people assistance in every way that they need, including shelter, food and friendship and fellowship.” 

“I think that these moments of crisis bring out some of the best of who we could be and who we are,” she said.

Cooper said during Saturday’s briefing that at least 68 people died as a result of the storm. The total death toll from Helene, which ripped through Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, has surpassed 200.

Harris visited Georgia earlier in the week, while President Biden has visited all four states.

FEMA has so far provided more than $26 million in housing and other types of assistance to North Carolina, and has shipped more than 5 million meals and 6 million liters of water to the state, according to the White House.

The agency has more than 700 staff members on the ground, and President Biden earlier in the week directed the Pentagon to deploy up to 1,000 active-duty troops to the state to assist with distributing resources.

The White House has also aggressively pushed back on false claims from former President Trump and Republicans that FEMA has run out of money because it allocated resources to assisting migrants.

Biden has called on Congress to pass additional disaster relief funds, warning the government will run out with several weeks still left in hurricane season.