President Joe Biden arrives in Perry on Oct. 3, 2024, to view damage from Hurricane Helene. (Pool photo)
This story is based on press pool reports.
President Joe Biden traveled to Florida’s Big Bend Thursday and urged bipartisanship as the best way to set a foundation for rebuilding areas of the state and the broader South after the devastation of Hurricane Helene.
“We have to break down this rabid partisanship that exists,” the president said. “There’s no rationale for it.”
Biden added that rebuilding will take billions of dollars and that it seems to him that Congress has a financial obligation to act soon. However, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, speaking nearby in Steinhatchee, didn’t appear in any hurry to call Congress back from its recess to pass a disaster supplemental bill.
The president appeared one week after Hurricane Helene made landfall just east of the mouth of the Aucilla River as a powerful Category 4 storm. It slashed across the Southeast, leaving at least 215 people dead in six states, with North Carolina accounting for nearly half of the casualties.
Air Force One landed in Tallahassee shortly before noon. Biden boarded Marine One for the 45-minute helicopter flight to the Taylor County seat of Perry, checking out coastal damage along the way. His motorcade drove from Perry to Keaton Beach, about a 30-mile drive.
President Joe Biden touched down in Air Force One at Tallahassee International Airport around 11:30 a.m. on Oct. 3, 2024. The city’s mayor, John Dailey, and other Tallahassee and Leon County officials greeted the president. Biden took off in a helicopter at noon for an aerial tour of the damage Hurricane Helene left in the Big Bend region. (Photo by Jackie Llanos/Florida Phoenix
Gov. Ron DeSantis and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp were invited to join the president but did not. U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, who is up for re-election in November, did, however, joining Biden as he walked through Keaton Beach.
“This can all be rebuilt,” a Keaton Beach resident told the president.
The locals seemingly had mixed responses to Biden’s visit. One man stood in front of a home and flipped off the president’s motorcade. Minutes later, a group of women waved at the processsion. And one man told the president he was glad to meet him.
Later, Biden flew to Moody Air Force base near Valdosta, Georgia, also hard hit by Helene and the site of a visit by former President Trump on Monday.
Response
The White House says the Federal Emergency Management Agency has distributed more than $20 million in funding to date. More than 5,000 personnel from across the federal workforce are deployed, including more than 1,500 from FEMA.
FEMA has shipped more than 9.3 million meals, 11.2 million liters of water, 150 generators and 260,000 tarps to Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.
Moreover, Biden announced this week that he would increase the federal costs share for each state, tribal, and local government and nonprofit organization engaged in recovery to cover their costs.
Upon his arrival in South Georgia, Biden saluted and shook the hands of members of the military. Among those waiting to greet him were U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and U.S. Reps. Sanford Bishop, who got a back pat, and Austin Scott.
Biden visited a pecan farm replete with crowing roosters and addressed the crowd who were sweating in the 87-degree heat.
“I see you, I hear you, I agree with you,” he told them. He promised the federal government would stay until the community is restored.
Buck Paulk, owner of the Shiloh Pecan Farm, found the damage disheartening, saying his operation won’t soon snap back. He offered a prayer for help for the community, and Biden took off his ball cap and bowed his head in response.
“We don’t look to get handouts,” Buck said. “But we do need the help.”