President Joe Biden authorized the Department of Defense to send 1,000 active-duty U.S. troops to aid states struggling in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
The president made the announcement Wednesday, as the White House indicated that most of the troops will be focused in North Carolina, one of the coastal states hardest hit by the natural disaster.
“These soldiers will speed up the delivery of life-saving supplies of food, water, and medicine to isolated communities in North Carolina — they have the manpower and logistical capabilities to get this vital job done, and fast,” Biden said in a statement announcing the directive. “They will join hundreds of North Carolina National Guard members deployed under State authorities in support of the response.”
DOD Secretary Pat Ryder said the soldiers are moving to the affected areas “within the next 24 hours” in a statement released Wednesday.
The National Guard has already activated more than 6,500 guardsmen to assist with disaster relief efforts.
Ryder said the additional 1,000 soldiers from the Infantry Battalion Task Force mission “will include delivering support and commodities to impacted and isolated communities, assisting with supply point logistics at commodity staging locations, and removing debris from affected routes.”
Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc across the southeastern United States after it first hit Florida on Sept. 26. It has claimed at least 166 lives, with the highest percentage of fatalities occurring in North Carolina. Over 1.2 million people across Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida, and Virginia remain without power, while South Carolina continues to experience the highest percentage of power outages, according to poweroutage.us.
Biden said in a post to X he would be flying over North Carolina and South Carolina on Wednesday to survey the devastation.
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“I’ll take an aerial tour of areas impacted by the storm, receive briefings, and meet with first responders and local officials,” he said.
Vice President Kamala Harris will be visiting Augusta, Georgia, to survey the damage there as well.