100 dead in storm Helene damage, flooding across US southeast

AFP | Valdosta, United States

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At least 100 people have been killed after destructive floods ripped through the US southeast, officials said Monday, with the emergency response effort fast becoming a political football in a region that could decide the presidential election.

Rescue operations sought to find survivors and deliver supplies across Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee in areas where torrential rains brought by Hurricane Helene caused havoc.

Residents face power cuts, supply shortages, blocked roads and broken communication lines in often mountainous terrain. Republican candidate Donald Trump will on Monday visit Valdosta in Georgia -- an epicenter of the flooding destruction, and also a key state in the tight election being held in just five weeks’ time.

Trump’s Democrat opponent Vice President Kamala Harris canceled campaign events to return to Washington for a briefing on the federal response, while President Joe Biden was due to speak on Monday morning from the White House.

Biden, who has approved federal aid for several states in the wake of the disaster, plans to travel to hard-hit areas this week, “as soon as it will not disrupt emergency response operations,” the White House said Sunday, adding that Harris would do the same.