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HURRICANE Helene’s path of destruction looks set to upend next month’s presidential election as it cuts through three of the crucial battleground states.
The devastating storm has wreaked havoc across the southeastern United States, leaving more than 200 dead so far.
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Three of the worst-affected states – Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina – are also among the closely-fought states that could shape the race for the White House and the Senate.
As both the Kamala Harris and Donald Trump teams enter the final month of campaigning, the 500-mile trail of carnage wrought by Hurricane Helene has seen added attention diverted to the affected states.
In tight state races that were already set to be decided by just a few thousand votes, both candidates are desperate to be seen as providing leadership at this time of national emergency.
“The burden is on President Biden’s shoulders because his reputation now with many voters is that he’s only marginally up to the job,” Steven Smith, a political science professor at St Louis’ Washington University, told NBC affiliate WFLA.
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“Anything that seems a bit slow, even if it’s not slow … will have some political fallout for him and those associated with him.
“So I think the burden is clearly on the shoulder of the Democrats.”
The White House issued a state-of-emergency declaration for Georgia shortly before the storm made landfall.
President Biden has planned a visit to western North Carolina, hardest hit by the storm, later this week.
He also announced that Congress would need to pass a supplemental funding bill to replenish disaster relief accounts.
Harris cut short a Nevada campaign trip earlier this week and flew back to Washington.
She is planning to visit the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) headquarters for updates.
That comes after FEMA chiefs warned the agency does not have enough funding to make it through the hurricane season.
Former President Trump claimed during a visit to Valdosta, Georgia this week that the state’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp had been unable to get in touch with Biden.
However, this had been earlier contradicted by Gov. Kemp who told reporters on Monday he had already spoken to the president.
Smith added that the fallout from Helene could draw devastating parallels for the Democrats with Hurricane Katrina.
The storm and subsequent flooding that killed more than 1,000 people in New Orleans and the surrounding areas of Louisiana in 2005 tarnished President George W. Bush’s legacy during his second term.
Before that, his father, President George HW Bush was slammed for responding too slowly to Hurricane Andrew, a Category 5 storm that brought devastation to Florida in August 1992.
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Helene is now the fourth deadliest hurricane to make landfall in the US mainland since 1950, and the deadliest since Katrina.
More than half of the deaths were in North Carolina, where entire communities have been completely washed away.
Hundreds remain missing, and officials have reported difficulties in identifying some of the dead.
Many shocking human stories have come out of the tragedy, including two grandparents killed in the hurricane found hugging each other in bed by their grandson after he went to check on them.
Jerry Savage, 78, tried to shield his 74-year-old wife Marcia’s body from the fatal winds in a heartwrenching final act of bravery, his son said.
In another act of unbelievable courage, a reporter was filmed saving a woman from floodwaters after she became trapped in her submerged car live on air.
Fox News meteorologist Bob Van Dillen was covering Hurricane Helene live from the scene of a swollen river in Atlanta, Georgia when he stopped his live report.
Hearing the woman’s screams for help, he rushed into chest-deep water to help rescue her.
