“We know that the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene is beyond imaginable,” said, Tuesday 1er October, the governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper, a few days after the passage of the storm in the southeast of the United States, which caused the death of at least 155 people.
“Localities have been wiped off the map”added, during a press conference, the governor whose state, the most affected by the hurricane, deplored at least 74 deaths on Tuesday.
American President Joe Biden will travel to North Carolina on Wednesday, while Vice-President Kamala Harris, Democratic presidential candidate on November 5, will travel to Georgia, where twenty-five deaths have been recorded. Their respective trips come as the response of the federal authorities to the disaster has become part of the presidential campaign. Georgia and North Carolina are among seven key states that could swing the election.
Donald Trump visited a town in Georgia affected by the hurricane on Monday and accused the federal state of not being “reactive” faced with the scale of the disaster. The Republican candidate had also earlier accused the authorities in North Carolina, led by Democrat Roy Cooper, of “deliberately not helping people in Republican areas”. “He’s lying”retorted a virulent Joe Biden. “What makes me angry [c’est qu’il] implies that we are not doing everything possible (…) It is false and it is irresponsible”.
More than 1.4 million homes and businesses without electricity
Tuesday evening, during the televised debate between the two American vice-presidential candidates, Republican JD Vance, opposed to Democrat Tim Walz, implicitly criticized the Biden administration’s response to the disaster: “Americans need their government to do its job. And I pledge that when Donald Trump is president again, the government will put the citizens of this country first when they suffer a disaster. »
More than 1.4 million homes and businesses were still without electricity on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. local time (1:30 a.m. Wednesday, Paris time), according to the specialist site poweroutage.us.
In South Carolina, at least thirty-six deaths have been recorded, while Florida has fourteen, Tennessee four and Virginia two, according to a report compiled Tuesday by Agence France-Presse based on statements from authorities. local.
Areas inaccessible by road
Authorities expect the overall toll to worsen further, as several areas remain inaccessible by road. Liz Sherwood-Randall, Joe Biden’s homeland security adviser, said Monday that the authorities had not heard from 600 people, saying however that she hoped that some of these people had remained ” envy “.
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Rescuers continue to work to try to find survivors and bring food to residents hit by the disaster, sometimes still cut off from the world. In the south of the Appalachian Mountains, Hélène caused flash floods with impressive damage. Images from around Asheville, North Carolina, show neighborhoods razed here, roads destroyed there by a flooded river. Due to lack of access by road, the authorities are sending relief supplies, water and foodstuffs by air.
For Joe Biden, there is no “no doubt” that these devastations are due to climate change which, by warming sea waters, makes, according to scientists, the rapid intensification of storms more likely and increases the risk of more powerful hurricanes.