hurricane helenThe trail of destruction in America’s southeast presented to Donald trump And kamala harris With a crucial political test just five weeks before Election Day, changes in campaign plans and the politics involved in response to the powerful storm.
Trump traveled to Georgia, one of the states worst hit by the storm and a key battleground that will determine the November outcome, while Harris cut short the Western campaign to return to Washington for a briefing at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Did it.
The natural disaster in the US southeast that killed more than 100 people and left hundreds missing – including in two key states – comes during an already tight presidential election. Despite flood waters receding, the area is struggling with power cuts, landslides and lack of supplies.
As of Monday morning, AccuWeather Inc. estimated that the total damage and economic loss from Helene could be as much as $160 billion – significantly higher than last week’s forecasts – and losses that would make it one of the nation’s top five costliest hurricanes ever .
On Monday, both Trump and Harris were trying to signal that their focus was solely on the storm and recovery efforts.
In Valdosta, Georgia, Trump offered the help of Elon Musk, one of his most prominent supporters, to residents, saying he had asked the billionaire to use his Starlink service to help restore communications.
“We want to connect Starlink, because they have no communications,” Trump said of communities in the wake of Helen.Destruction of. “Elon will always come.”
Starlink is SpaceX’s massive internet-from-space initiative, consisting of more than 6,000 satellites in orbit that provide broadband coverage to Earth.
But Biden administration officials said they have already moved forward on using Starlink to connect communities, Homeland Security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall told reporters during a briefing on Monday. FEMA 30 Starlink receivers will be installed that day in North Carolina, another hurricane-ravaged state that is also a 2024 battleground.
Harris, for his part, flew cross-country from Nevada. In Washington, she headed to FEMA headquarters. Harris said she has received regular briefings and has spoken to both Republican Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia and Democrat Roy Cooper of North Carolina.
“We will do everything in our power to help communities respond and recover. And I have shared with them that I plan to get to the ground as quickly as possible,” Harris said, adding that she did not want to disrupt recovery efforts.
Citigroup economists led by Andrew Hollenhorst said in a note to clients on Monday that the storm, combined with a possible strike by dockworkers at ports on the East and Gulf coasts, presents a “dual disruption” that could “plump the underlying economic trends.” Could.”
Frequent power cuts and floods threaten to reduce production and consumption. But since the storm came at the end of a month and quarter, it is unclear to what extent it will impact economic data once activity bounces back.
Trump rebuked Harris and President Joe Biden over the weekend, blaming the sitting president for staying at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and continuing to campaign on the West Coast for storm-ravaged communities in states including Florida, Georgia. His general-election opponent was blamed for. and North Carolina.
Speaking from the White House, Biden sought to reassure the public that the administration was using the full resources of the federal government, saying they would be there “as long as necessary.”
“I have directed my team to provide every available resource to your communities as quickly as possible,” Biden said, adding that he has approved emergency declarations in seven states and disaster declarations in three of them.
The president said he expects supplemental funding from Congress, and may also request lawmakers to return to Washington from the pre-election recess.
Biden told reporters he would visit North Carolina on Wednesday. He also reacted angrily to Trump’s criticism, including the former president’s claims that Kemp could not reach Biden, when in fact they had spoken the previous day.
“He is lying,” Biden said. “It’s irresponsible.”
The president also bristled at a question about criticism of spending the weekend in Delaware at a time when the storm impacted communities in the Southeast.
“Come on. Stop playing that game. It’s 90 miles from here,” Biden said. “If I sound frustrated, I’m frustrated.”
How presidents and candidates respond to such natural disasters may be important in shaping voters’ perception of their effectiveness in office and their empathy. In 2012, then-President Barack Obama earned praise for embracing then-New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican, after Hurricane Sandy devastated the northeastern seaboard shortly before that year’s election.
Trump has faced criticism for his administration’s handling of the response to Hurricane Maria, which devastated parts of Puerto Rico. The then President clashed with the leaders of the island. And when he visited San Juan after the hurricane, he famously threw rolls of paper towels into the crowd — a move that critics called insensitive but Trump defended.
Biden has long had a reputation as a sympathetic president eager to console victims of disasters and visit affected communities, but his image was tarnished by wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui in 2023 – Local residents criticized the response of state and federal officials.
That criticism was fueled when the president told reporters, “No comment” when asked about wildfire deaths in Delaware over the holidays. Biden was again at his Rehoboth Beach home when Helen devastated North Carolina over the weekend, but he defended his efforts to coordinate the federal response.
“I was giving orders,” Biden said. “I was on the phone for at least two hours yesterday and the day before yesterday too. I command; “It’s called a telephone.”
During her briefing at FEMA, Harris became agitated when reporters asked her questions about how the hurricane would affect her campaign and whether the disaster was being politicized.
