President Joe Biden directed 1,000 active-duty soldiers to assist in delivering food, water and other services to communities impacted by Hurricane Helene, which ravaged southern states over the weekend—a move that comes as former President Donald Trump criticized the federal government’s response to the disaster.
Debris is visible in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Sept. 30, 2024, in Asheville, N.C.
Biden said in the statement he directed the Department of Defense to deploy the thousand soldiers—coming from an Infantry Battalion Task Force based out of Fort Liberty, North Carolina—starting Wednesday.
At least 175 people have died, hundreds are still missing and about 1.3 million people were still without power as of Wednesday afternoon.
The new deployment of soldiers will join the existing search-and-rescue and debris removal efforts from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
FEMA said it had sent more than 7.1 million meals, more than 6.5 million liters of water, 150 generators and more than 200,000 tarps to the region impacted by Helene as of Tuesday.
Public health emergencies have been declared in South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia and North Carolina as a result of Hurricane Helene, and major disaster declarations or states of emergency were still in place for a number of states.
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Biden announced the 1,000 soldiers just before he is set to visit North Carolina and South Carolina to survey the damage and meet with local leaders. Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Georgia on Wednesday.
Trump criticized the Biden administration’s response to the hurricane Monday, alleging Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp was “having a hard time getting the president on the phone”—despite Kemp saying he had spoken to the president—leading Biden to say Trump was lying, and calling him “irresponsible.” Trump also accused Harris of staging a photo on social media of her being briefed by FEMA about the storm because her headphones were not plugged into her phone. Forbes has reached out to the Harris campaign for comment on the allegation.
Hurricane Helene made landfall as a Category 4 storm in the Big Bend region of Florida on Thursday before moving northward. It brought “historic and catastrophic flooding” to the southern Appalachians. North Carolina had the most reported deaths from the storm of any state—about 90—followed by South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, though there were also deaths in Tennessee and Virginia.