Vice President Kamala Harris plans to head to storm-ravaged Georgia on Wednesday to help direct the federal recovery effort after Hurricane Helene ripped through several states in the Southeast.
As the deadly storm threatens to shake up the presidential race just five weeks before Election Day, Harris plans to survey devastation and meet with officials in the Peach State before journeying to North Carolina in the coming days, according to aides who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the travel plans.
The Democratic presidential nominee has been working to coordinate her plans to showcase her involvement in the relief effort without negatively impacting local disaster response efforts.
After Georgia, Harris plans to continue with scheduled campaign visits to Wisconsin and Michigan later this week, with the North Carolina trip coming sometime after that.
President Biden will visit North Carolina on Wednesday, checking out the worst damage in the Asheville area by helicopter to avoid tying up local resources.
Former President Trump, who is locked in a neck-and-neck race with Harris, visited Georgia on Monday, where he spread falsehoods about the federal response to the storm despite claiming not to be politicizing the disaster.
Harris had been scheduled to join her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on a bus tour across Pennsylvania on Wednesday, on the day after he faces off with Republican JD Vance in Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate.
Walz will instead be joined by Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman.
With Helene’s death toll nearing 150, searchers fanned out across the region, using helicopters to get past washed-out bridges and hiking through wilderness to reach isolated homes.
Many who lived through what was one of the deadliest storms in U.S. history were left without electricity or any way to reach out for help. Some cooked food on charcoal grills or hiked to high ground in the hopes of finding a signal to call loved ones.
The devastation was especially bad in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where at least 50 people died in and around Asheville, a tourism haven known for its art galleries, breweries and outdoor activities.
Helene blew ashore in Florida late Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane and tore a path of devastation through Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee. Officials warned that rebuilding would be long and difficult.
The weather disaster has potential to play an undetermined role in American presidential politics, where voters may be watching Biden and Harris to assess their leadership of the disaster effort.