ASHEVILLE, North Carolina: Former United States president Donald Trump hits the campaign trail in hurricane-hit North Carolina on Monday (Oct 21), having heavily criticised the government’s disaster response after at least 124 people were killed there by storm Helene.
Emergency services are still distributing food and water in the worst-affected parts of the state almost a month after Helene slammed into southeastern US, leaving more than 240 dead in its wake, according to an AFP tally.
Trump will hold a campaign rally in the city of Greenville, while his Democratic rival Kamala Harris is set to address supporters in other battleground states Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
The two candidates are locked in a neck-and-neck race for the White House with just over two weeks until Election Day. Polls show the contest is too close to call, including in the seven swing states that decide US elections.
In North Carolina, emergency services continue to address the storm’s aftermath, with urban search-and-rescue teams still at work in some areas.
On Sunday, the White House said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had “approved more than US$300 million in assistance across the state, including US$118 million in individual assistance to more than 87,600 households”.
The immediate aftermath of the storm left many without access to power, drinking water or shelter, leading Trump to sharply criticise US President Joe Biden and his vice president, Harris.
Survivors wait for aid as Trump’s lies help cloud Helene response
PENSACOLA: In the mountains of North Carolina, real frustrations over federal aid for victims of Hurricane Helene have been supercharged by a whirlwind of lies and misinformation – fuelled in part by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Ten days after Helene carved a path of destruction through the southeastern United States, many residents are still cut off – from federal assistance, from electricity and running water, and, crucially, from accurate information.
A man cleans his shed covered with mud following the passing of Hurricane Helene, in Creston, North Carolina, on Oct 5, 2024. (Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz)
Trump and others have poured false claims and conspiracy theories into that vacuum, targeting in particular the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) – which, when a US state asks for help, puts the power of the federal government behind the disaster response.
The result? Anger, on top of grief, loss and devastation.
“FEMA should have been here, boots on the ground,” Janet Musselwhite, a resident of Pensacola, North Carolina, which was hit hard by the storm, tells AFP.
The same thing happened after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, she said. “They waited and they waited and people died, and that’s what has happened here.”
Helene is now the deadliest storm to have struck the US mainland since Katrina, with a death toll of more than 230 people.
The United States has distributed more than US$210 million in federal aid and dispatched nearly 7,000 emergency response personnel to assist with relief efforts across the US southeast, according to the White House.
Schools are due to reopen in some of the hardest hit areas this week, and municipal services say water supply has been restored in many areas – although some continue to face “boil water” advisories.
Shelley Hughes, 64, lives near the city of Asheville, and said as of Friday the water at her residence was “still brownish (in) color”.
“It still kind of looks like, I guess, for lack of a better word, like a war zone,” she said of her town of Swannanoa.
Harris and Trump are virtually tied in the battleground states, according to a New York Times polling average, and North Carolina is no different – Harris stood at 49 per cent in the state, to Trump’s 48 per cent, on Sunday.Early voting is already underway in several states, including North Carolina, where more than a million people had cast their ballots as of Sunday, according to official data.
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump watches a video on a screen with Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris as he speaks during a campaign event, on Oct 18, 2024 in Detroit. (File photo: AP/Carlos Osorio)
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