Washington/Prensa Latina
The president of the United States, Joe Biden, travels to Florida and Georgia to visit the areas affected by Hurricane Helene, which so far caused 191 deaths in the southeast of the country, a changing figure.
Biden made a similar tour the day before through North and South Carolina, while Vice President Kamala Harris was in Georgia to verify the extent of the damage.
A week after Helene hit the Big Bend area of Florida as a category 4 hurricane, the search for missing people, relief efforts for affected residents and the restoration of the affected areas in the southeast of the national territory continue.
The hydrometeorological phenomenon is the second deadliest hurricane to hit the continental United States since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
More than a million customers remain without information, according to PowerOutage.us. Most are located in the Carolinas, where regional energy provider Duke Energy says that “large portions of the electrical grid… were simply wiped out,” local media highlights. In many places, infrastructure must be rebuilt before electricity service is restored.
In some counties in Georgia and one in North Carolina, utilities say more than 90 percent of their customers are still not receiving information.
In a small southern Georgia county, 99 percent of homes and businesses still do not have power, according to reports.
Hundreds of roads also remain closed, making it more difficult to send aid to the most affected communities.
Biden yesterday deployed 1,000 troops from Fort Liberty in eastern North Carolina to the devastated western part of the state.
A bipartisan group of senators from states affected by Helene on Tuesday asked Congress to act quickly to approve disaster aid, perhaps returning before its recess, which is supposed to last until after the Nov. 5 election.
Lawmakers from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Virginia signed a letter to Senate leaders and top spending bill drafters.
“Although the true level of devastation is still being revealed, it is clear that Congress must act to meet the unmet needs in our states and address the scope and scale of the destruction experienced by our constituents,” they stressed in the letter.
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