Tipsheet

Biden and Harris' Response to Hurricane Helene Is Part of a Disturbing Pattern

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  September 30, 2024 6:50 AM

Hurricane Helene dissipated over the weekend, but not before smashing into Florida’s Big Bend as a category four storm, inflicting “biblical” damage across the southern United States. After landfall, the heavy rains led to catastrophic flooding that’s killed almost 100 people so far. In the Newport area of Tennessee, about 60 miles outside Knoxville, residents were forced to scramble after the Waterville Dam failed.

And where’s Biden and Harris throughout this crisis? It’s part of an unseemly pattern with this administration: when disaster strikes, everyone runs away. A train derails in East Palestine, Ohio—the Biden White House drags their feet. Severe wildfires strike Maui, the deadliest in 100 years, and it takes Joe forever to get out there. Joe’s mind is applesauce. Kamala is too stupid to know what to do—and the rest of this government is stacked with incompetents and other invalids. Meanwhile, there are reports that hundreds of thousands of people in Ashville, North Carolina, could be without access to water for weeks.

Yes, this is a campaign issue because we have an administration that can’t do disaster response.

Does Biden even know there’s been a hurricane?

 USA Today has more on the damage: 

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More than 2 million people remained without power late Sunday across the Southeast in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, including more than 430,000 in North Carolina, where the deadly storm pulverized homes, trapped residents, spawned landslides, and submerged communities under raging floodwaters. 

At least 90 people have died across multiple states since the record-breaking storm hit Florida's Big Bend as a Category 4 hurricane with 140-mph winds Thursday, before moving north through Georgia, Tennessee, and the Carolinas and weakening to a post-tropical cyclone. The death toll is expected to rise. 

On Sunday, North Carolina officials were still trying to grasp the level of devastation. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said at a news conference that at least 11 people died in the devastated state, "and tragically we know there will be more." 

Buncombe County Manager Avril Pinder said more than 1,000 people were reported missing through the county’s online portal but added that she expected the number to drop dramatically when cell service is restored. Rescue crews are “still trying to save every single person we can” in the hard-hit community, Pinder said. 

Hundreds of roads were washed away, cellular service for over 250,000 people was cut off, and vast swaths of cities such as Asheville were left underwater. Cooper said Helene had become "one of the worst storms in modern history for parts of North Carolina."