National Guard troops are joining other federal emergency responders and local officials in rescue and relief efforts across impacted East Coast states.
A National Guard spokesperson said Thursday that more than 6,700 Army and Air National Guard members from 16 states have deployed.
The U.S. military also has sent more than 40 rotary-wing aircraft and around 600 military vehicles.
Maj. Gen. Win Burkett, the director of domestic operations and force development at the National Guard Bureau, said the military response so far has been quick and effective.
“There are so many great examples of really heroic actions,” he said in a media roundtable, pointing to one example in Tennessee when crews rescued more than 80 people from a flooded hospital. “It’s just a wonderful thing to listen, it’s a wonderful thing to be a part of.”
The National Guard is doing rescue operations, food and aid distribution and even route clearance to facilitate safe travel.
Around 1 million people are still without power in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, and the states are still grappling with flooded roads and destroyed infrastructure.
Hurricane Helene, which made landfall first in Florida last Thursday, has killed more than 200 people across the East Coast.
Helene is the second deadliest storm to make landfall in modern U.S. history after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
President Biden also traveled Thursday to Florida and Georgia to visit hard-hit regions. In a press stop in Georgia, he called for unity.
“In moments like this, it’s time to put politics aside,” Biden said. “No Democrats or Republicans out here … only Americans out here.”
Burkett said that in light of climate change expected to make storms more challenging, communities were responding to be more resilient.
“Storms like we’ve seen in the last couple years, while they do continue to intensify, our community’s ability to build resiliency and to respond and to help each other will make us much, much stronger,” he said.
