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President Joe Biden announced that active military will be deployed to assist with aid efforts in western North Carolina, which has been devastated by Hurricane Helene. 

Biden assures NC: 'The nation has your back' amid Helene devastation

In Western North Carolina. I know I know that we can come back and that we will come back because the people of Western North Carolina are resilient, working together. We can get through this. And I am proud to recognize my friend, the United States, the president of the United States of America, Joe Bryant. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. I don't have to tell this group that uh hurricane Helene has been a storm really of historic proportions. The damage is still being assessed but, and many people are still unaccounted for. So I'm here to say the United States, the nation has your back, the nation has your back. We're not leaving your back on your feet completely. You know, uh we're in a situation where earlier this morning, uh I met the state local police in Greenville, South Carolina. Then I took a narrow tour of Western North Carolina uh survey the damage and uh came here in Raleigh to receive a briefing from all of you. And uh we've been working nonstop to provide the support that you need and the survivors need. You know, it goes, uh my heart goes out to everyone who has experienced the unthinkable loss, but we're here for you. And I wanna thank Republican Governor of South Carolina and the Democratic Governor of North Carolina and all the elected officials are focused on the task at hand in a moment like this. We put politics aside, at least we should put it all aside. And we have here, there are no Democrats, Republicans, only Americans. And our job is to help as many people as we can, as quickly as we can and as thoroughly as we can. You know, that's why before the storm hit, I directed the entire federal government to use every possible source to help communities across the nation across the region. Get ready. We deployed over 1001st responders throughout the southeast immediately approved emergency declarations. As soon as I received a request from your governors. Today, I approve the request of Governor Cooper for the federal government to cover 100% 100% of all the costs for debris removal, emergency protective measures for six months. All the costs. Yeah, this really matters. There are 70 North Carolinians who are dead and hundreds more who are unaccounted for and uh much of Asheville is underwater. It was, I've flown over an awful lot of uh storm damaged areas since I've been president. Matter of fact, most millennium forest fires and uh I, we, the FEMA director and I have flown over more, more forest that's been taken down to the ground because of fires and a whole range of other reasons than makes up the entire state of Maryland. And, uh, and so I've seen a lot of looking at as, and just imagine what it must have been like sitting along those rivers and streams as all that rain came down. What, 19 inches of rain, something like that incredible amount of rain. Watching homes. You can see homes that have moved from clearly from one side of the river, down the river to another side of the river. And uh I can only imagine what it's like to uh have been in one of those homes. And uh much of Asheville was underwater, much of it was underwater. It was a beautiful, beautiful part of the country. I've been to Asheville before. It's a magnificent part of Appalachia. Much of it was underwater communities like chimney rock are reduced to piles of wood and debris. I mean, that's you look down, that's what you see as we flew over a circle in a helicopter. And uh this is gonna pay for, uh this will pay for the urgent work. We need to clear landslides to provide shelters and supply food and medicine. But today, I'm also directing the Department of Defense to move up 1000 soldiers to reinforce North Carolina's National Guard because they need additional assistance. These soldiers are out of Fort Liberty here and right here in North Carolina and they are available for responsive operations starting today. Starting today. They're gonna spend, they're gonna speed up the delivery of life saving supplies like food, water and medicine to isolate the communities over what the Pentagon calls. The last Tactical mile. The last tactical mile simply put, we've got the capabilities to get the job done and we're going to get it done fast as possible. I've also directed the development of starlink deployment of starlink satellites. Um, 5050 are in place right now. More are gonna be put in place. So people in places like Canton can call for help and reach the ones that love loved ones and they're not sure but anybody know that phone because there no cell service. And uh on top of this, the F MA teams are offering free temporary housing and hotel rooms for eligible residents. They're continuing to send helicopters and trucks to deliver hundreds of thousands of meals and liters of water in communities every single day. And they're and they're knocking literally knocking on doors and visiting shelters to register folks so they can receive assistance to buy the urgent needs that they have because they've lost everything like prescriptions and baby formula and essentials. This is a direct assistance that is being delivered here today, not, not later but today. And so the folks it's gonna take cost us billions of dollars. It's gonna cost billions of dollars to deal with this storm and all the, all the communities affected and Congress has an obligation to ensure the storage. So the states have the resources they need. Let me close to this. Nobody can deny the impact of climate crisis anymore. At least I hope they don't. They must be brain dead if they do. Scientists report that with warming oceans powering more intense rains, storms like Killeen are getting stronger and stronger. Not gonna get, not gonna get less. They're gonna get stronger. Today in North Carolina, I saw the impacts of that fury, massive trees uprooted homes, literally swept off their foundations, swept down rivers. You know, families are heartbroken, but there are also neighbors helping neighbors. That's the other thing we were talking about coming over here in, in an automobile. It's amazing when people step up when people are in need because they're neighbors. I think we underestimate that that's why one of the things I did with all the, all I put in place in terms of everything from the Recovery Act on down is that we've actually invested more funding under my administration and the so-called red states and blue states because the need was greater than larger states or larger territories because this, everyone, this is about America. It's not about one state or another Democrat or Republican. It's about America. Volunteers first responders are standing side by side, people leaning on each other to pick up the pieces that are left over and that's the best of America. I, I firmly believe I'm saying this saying and saying it for three years. There's nothing beyond our capacity to do nothing. Nothing, nothing. This is United States of America for God's sake. Whenever we work together, we've never failed to get something done. So I thank everyone who has been working tirelessly and cold wet and hungry to, to get the job done. And Kamal and I are here until the end. I want God bless you all. And I'd like to turn it now over. The director will thank you Mr President on behalf of the state emergency response team. The folks you see here, the folks down range at our regional coordinations centers in the West as well as those in the impacted communities working night and day. Welcome to North Carolina and to the State Emergency Operations Center this afternoon. We wanted to give you a quick operational update on the impacts of Helene and on the whole of community response that you see here beginning last week, September 25 what began three days of extreme and unrelenting precipitation that has led to catastrophic flooding and damage to western North Carolina. We had saturated soils upwards of nine inches prior to the bands of Helene entering North Carolina. And as you mentioned, we saw significant rainfall across western North Carolina with the highest rainfall amounts measuring over 31 inches in a three day period in Y county. With this event, we experienced the full sweep of impacts of a hurricane to include tropical and hurricane force winds across our mountains. With the highest wind gusts around Mount Mitchell at 106 miles an hour. We had eight confirmed tornadoes across North Carolina as a result of this event. And our peak outages were over a million. Those outages are now due to the work of the partnerships in this room and the hard work of the crews are down to about 350,000. The impacts from Helene caused flash flooding emergencies for 21 different counties across Western North Carolina which is only used during rare and life threatening events. The impacts were further compounded by the spread and speed of the water from an operational standpoint. We're really focused on three things currently, one continuing life safety missions, two, the increased speed of commodity distribution into the western part of the state and three support of our infrastructure, particularly health care, water power and communications. The state emergency response team here remains activated at the stadio and along with our regional co Ordination center in the West to continue to support our local jurisdictions in the critical work that they do. We currently have 16 county OCS that remain open with 29 shelters with just over 1200 occupants. We have four state operated shelters, state supported shelters as well in four counties, Henderson, Roan, Bunkum and Catawba. We also have three mass feeding sites supported by our VAD partners that are distributing hot meals to 30 sites across 10 counties. Our response footprint has grown significantly and we're grateful for the support, not just from the 22 states that have sent teams to support us but also from our fema team and other members of the federal family. We currently have 24 search and rescue teams from the state of North Carolina in the area of impact along with 13 that are continued to be deployed via our interstate mutual aid and we have continued to increase the number of federal teams. It is now up to 18 and that accounts for over 1600 personnel operating in the area of impact right now to support our local jurisdictions that had such significant impact across all those teams. We've had over 5000 search and rescue interactions. This could be rescues, evacuations, assists shelter assessments. The teams continue to continue to do really incredible work in some pretty austere conditions. We have 26 aircraft that are currently in the area of operations and so far over the course of the event have lifted over 700,000 pounds of cargo into the impacted area at the direction of the Secretary of Defense with your approval. Yesterday, we began moving and integrating the title 10 aviation assets. We will also begin to integrate the additional dod workforce today to move tomorrow and general hunt will cover more of that specifically as you can see from the Federal force lay down slide. Not only do we have title 10 assets here. We continue to have federal search and rescue us. Army Corps epa a very large contingent of our health and human services partners that are supporting both hospitals with two disaster medical assistance teams as well as supporting the state in health care, infrastructure, assessment and other health and medical needs such as federal ambulances. As you see sir, this really takes hold of the community. It's local state, federal tribal at all levels, non profits, volunteer agencies and the private sector to actually accomplish this mission. Finally, we've already begun to implement some of our recovery programs. We currently have over 33,000 individuals that have already registered for individual assistance and we are working to turn on additional programs to quickly support these impacted communities. So we get them off on the right foot to rebuild quickly at this time, sir, will transition to a deeper dive brief from our colleagues. We'll pause briefly at this time. Take right? Did not. Ok. Um And let's turn off the camera. You can leave your but this is the I'm not. Got it. Thank you, sir. Oh, no. Ok. Thank you, Harvey. That was a little, you can see why there was no room. It was all right. Oh, something happened here. No, a referral.

Biden is briefed on NC damage from Helene

Gov. Roy Cooper and President Joe Biden 

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NC Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson didn't vote on state's Helene emergency declaration, records show

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At least 89 people killed in NC from Helene, Biden receives briefing in Raleigh

Cell signals knocked out across western North Carolina

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Hurricane Helene damage in Banner Elk, NC

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Soldiers and veterans who live in Moore County, near Fort Liberty and the home of the 82nd Airborne, are putting their expertise to work to get much needed supplies to rural communities cut off by Hurricane Helene. 

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Lawsuits over wills, insurance payouts, foreclosures, evictions, bankruptcies, contract disputes, property disputes, child custody disputes and more are expected to follow in the wake of Helene storm damage in western North Carolina.

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Hundreds of people are missing in the North Carolina mountains because of Helene, including foster families and their children.



Helene leaves foster families in western NC without essential resources

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Tropical Storm Helene has left a trail of devastation in the Black Mountain area, with severe flooding that has impacted entire communities.

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Helene brings devastating flooding to Garren Creek 

Officials are warning residents not to travel in or to western portion of North Carolina amid the destruction from Helene. Here is a look at what's roads are closed. This list will be updated as conditions improve.

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North Carolina data shows the state has also had at least 89 deaths due to Helene. The ages range from 4 to 89.

Tracking Helene's impact: Search power outages in NC, number of deaths by NC county

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As floodwaters recede, people in Buncombe County are cleaning up from the damage left behind by Hurricane Helene.

The phone lines are open now for the WRAL Hurricane Helene Recovery Telethon. Call 919-595-5005 to donate or donate online!

How to help western NC residents devastated by Helene

WRAL News is covering the impact, aftermath and cleanup from Hurricane Helene, from the flooding as far west as the Tennessee border to tornado damage in Rocky Mount. 
Tap a pin for coverage from your hometown.

Map: County-by-county coverage of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina

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Aerial footage is giving us a better idea of the devastation in western North Carolina as a result of catastrophic flooding and mudslides from Hurricane Helene.

Helene's devastation in NC: See aerial views of cities completely underwater, mudslides washing out highways

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Pet lovers will be happy to know that more than 100 animals from the Asheville Humane Society have been safely evacuated after Hurricane Helene devastated the mountain community.

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Triangle hospitals play critical role in providing aid in western NC

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'Land of Oz' reports minor damage from Helene

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With a rise of teens vaping in the state, advocates have called on lawmakers to address what they call a "loophole" in state law that is allowing young people to get easier access to tobacco products.


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Hurricane Helene has raised concerns about the increasing frequency of severe weather across the U.S., with more than 1,495 tornadoes recorded this year, making it the second-most active year on record.

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North Carolina town that produces quartz needed for tech products is devastated by Helene

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