Kamala Harris hands out meals, consoles families as she surveys Hurricane Helene devastation in Georgia

VicePresident Kamala Harris handed out meals embraced a shaken family and surveyed Hurricane Helenes extraordinary path of destruction through Georgia on Wednesday as she left the campaign trail to pledge federal help and personally take in scenes of toppled trees damaged homes and lives upendedShe visited Augusta where power lines stretched along the sidewalk and utility poles lay cracked and broken The vicepresident spoke from a lectern erected in front of a house with a fallen tree teetering on its roof acknowledging those who had died in the disaster while also trying to project a tone of unity and hope for communities now facing long and expensive rebuildsHarris and President Joe Biden who visited the Carolinas on Wednesday were seeking to demonstrate commitment and competence in helping devastated communities after Republican former president Donald Trumps false claims about their administrations response Harris said she wanted to personally take a look at the devastation which is extraordinary She expressed admiration for how people are coming together People are helping perfect strangersThe Democratic presidential nominee said that shows the vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us an echo of a line she frequently uses on the campaign trail Before delivering her remarks Harris could be seen embracing and huddling with a family of five grappling with the storms aftermathWe are here for the long haul she said Harris also toured a Red Cross relief centre and received a briefing from local officials praising those working to meet the needs of people who must be seen and must be heard I am now listening she said Brittany Smith an Augusta resident walked away from the distribution centre with Styrofoam boxes of food and some fruit cups beaming that she got a photo with the vicepresident She said theres a hole in her roof and she had to send her kids elsewhere to live because it wasnt safeHarris visit she said made it better despite the hardship Smith said she was encouraged that Harris travelled to the town instead of just appearing on television Shes a person Shes not just a voice About 200 miles north in the Carolinas Biden was also surveying the storms aftermath With many of the areas roads inaccessible he flew by helicopter over toppled trees twisted metal and towering piles of debris in the normally touristfriendly downtown of AshevilleFrom the air Biden saw flooded roads piles of shredded lumber and displaced sandbags emergency trucks and downed power lines In one area homes were partly underwater and it was hard to distinguish between lake and land Visits to disaster zones are a familiar responsibility for Biden who has frequently been called on to survey damage and comfort victims after tornadoes wildfires and tropical storms But this was Harris first visit to a disaster area as vicepresidentBecause of the destruction where Biden was on Wednesday he was unable to walk around and personally comfort people as Harris did in Georgia Biden wore a vest and boots and before his air tour he hugged and grabbed the hand of Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer who was at the airport in Greenville South Carolina to meet him The mayor with visible emotion said they could not close down the areas one operable road for Bidens motorcadeBiden will be back in the region Thursday to visit Florida and Georgia and Harris plans her own North Carolina trip in coming days as Helenes aftermath continues to pose a political and humanitarian test for the administration Before leaving Washington Biden made a point of mentioning how an ongoing dockworkers strike could make getting supplies to hardhit areas more difficultNatural disasters are incredibly consequential The last thing we need on top of that is a manmade disaster thats going on at the ports he said Were getting pushback already were hearing from the folks regionally that theyre having trouble getting product that they need because of the port strike Harris is being especially watched as her bid for the White House enters its closing stretch and Helenes path included the battleground states of Georgia and North CarolinaThe vicepresident last visited scenes of natural disasters as a California senator including when she went to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017 and when she walked through charred wreckage in Paradise California after the camp fire in 2018 Julie Chavez Rodriguez Harris campaign manager and former state director in her Senate office said the vicepresident uses her experience consoling victims as a courtroom prosecutor to connect with people after tragediesShe said the trip to Georgia was a chance for Harris to continue to show her leadership and her ability to get things done versus Donald Trump and JD Vance who want to dismantle the basic services and the role that the government should play Trump the Republican nominee travelled to Valdosta Georgia on Monday with a Christian charity organisation that brought trucks of fuel food water and other suppliesThe storms death toll climbed to at least 178 people and power running water and cellular service remained unavailable in some places Later Wednesday Biden flew to Raleigh North Carolina for a briefing with officials and called Helene a storm of historic proportions The nation has your back Biden saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever