President Joe Biden remained lounging at the beach this weekend while Appalachian valleys in North Carolina and Tennessee suffered deadly flooding from Hurricane Helene.
As of Sunday morning, dozens had died across the southeastern United States, but the death toll is likely to rise following the torrential downpour from the Category 4 storm that smashed into the Big Bend of Florida on Thursday.
Biden’s public schedule had him depart for Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on Friday, the day after the hurricane’s initial landfall. He was initially expected to be there through late Sunday evening, but the president reportedly returned to Washington earlier on Sunday as tensions escalate in the Middle East.
Floodwaters almost completely isolated the North Carolina city of Asheville from the outside world, breaking roads and knocking out power and cell service. State officials are scrambling to airlift supplies into the region. Ryan Cole, the assistant director for emergency services in Buncombe County, said the “Biblical” flooding had wrought devastation in the area.
“You’ve heard us say, ‘catastrophic devastation within our county.’ I would go a little bit further and say we have Biblical devastation through the county,” Cole told reporters Saturday. “We’ve had Biblical flooding here, and it has been extremely significant.”
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Author: Paul Bedard
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