About 600 missing after Hurricane Helene devastates south-eastern US

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More than 100 people have been killed and as many as 600 people are missing after Hurricane Helene ripped through the south-eastern US, causing widespread destruction and flooding, the White House said.

The rising death toll emerged as the Biden administration and local officials struggled to deliver support to the most affected states, stretching from Florida to Georgia and North Carolina, where tens of thousands of survivors have been stranded without electricity or running water.

The devastation hit with little more than a month until the US presidential election that pits Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice-president, against Donald Trump, the Republican nominee and former president.

Trump rushed to southern Georgia on Monday to speak about the hurricane’s impact, while Harris returned to Washington DC, from a trip to the west coast to receive a briefing from federal emergency response officials.

Speaking from the White House, President Joe Biden vowed to deliver all the help that the government could to the communities hit by the storm, in co-ordination with local governors. He also said he expected to request additional disaster relief funding from Congress.

“We’re not leaving until the job is done,” Biden said. “We will be there as long as it takes.”

Biden said he expected to visit the region later this week, but only after it was clear that the arrival of the president and his entourage would not disrupt the operations of the first responders.

US officials said many communities hit by the storm were isolated so the extent of the damage remained unknown.

Speaking in Georgia on Monday, Trump blamed Biden and Harris for the struggles of the storm victims, saying the response had been slow.

“The governor is doing a good job,” Trump said, referring to Georgia Republican governor Brian Kemp. “But he’s having a hard time getting the president on the phone. They’re being very non-responsive.”

But Kemp had no complaints about the administration’s reaction. “The president just called me yesterday afternoon . . . and he just said ‘Hey, what do you need’,” he told reporters. “[Biden] offered that if there’s other things we need, just to call him directly, which I appreciate.”

Biden did not estimate how much additional funding he would request from Congress for the response to the storm, but lawmakers would have to be called back from the pre-election recess to vote on the aid.

Conservative Republicans have at times objected to federal funding for disaster relief, or insisted the money be offset by spending cuts elsewhere, which could complicate its passage.