Even the human tragedy caused by Hurricane Helene becomes political in US election year

The images from the past few days are staggering, as are the statistics.

Forty trillion gallons of rain were dumped on this southeastern part of the United States over the past week. It is an historic amount of rainfall which has stunned experts.

It has taken rescue and recovery teams several days to access some of the rural communities across North Carolina. Some areas remain out of reach.

The waters in Asheville have only just begun to recede and the power of the rain dumped by Hurricane Helene is remarkable.

There is no power, no mobile coverage, roads are out. Those still passable are unsafe. Most of the images are only from the air. These are extremely challenging conditions for those stuck and those trying to get to them.

To the southeast of Asheville, the rural valleys are only now becoming accessible. The totality of all this is clear.

The small community of Bat Cave is devastated. The bridges are gone, the banks of the River Broad have been ripped away.

Some homes are still standing but without their foundations and the danger here is everywhere still; roads likely to collapse, and landslides too, with more rain forecast.

The sweep of this storm’s destruction is vast. Eight hours drive to the south, in Valdosta, Georgia, they were assessing the damage on Monday and hosted a visitor – Donald Trump.

Some will see his visit as a politically-driven photo op. Others will take it in good faith.

Either way – Georgia, like North Carolina, is a must-win swing state. The presidential election is a month out and his tone was a reflection of that.

“We pitch in, we persevere, we pull through…” the former president said before switching to an attack on the Biden-Harris administration.

“They are not being responsive…” he said, before claiming that the Georgia governor, Brian Kemp, had not been able to get through to President Biden. The governor, a Republican, denied this.

In the Oval Office, in Washington, President Biden reacted angrily to Mr Trump’s comments.

“Let me get this straight,” the president said. “He’s lying. And the governor told me he’s lying… I’ve spoken to the governor, I’ve spent time with him and he told me he’s lying, I don’t know why he does this. And the reason I get so angry about it is I don’t care what he says about me, but I care about what he communicates to the people that are in need. He implies that we’re not doing everything possible. We are. We are.”

Trump’s opponent, vice president Kamala Harris has not yet visited the stricken region saying she doesn’t want to disrupt or distract the rescue operation.

Instead, she spent Monday at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) pledging help and to be on the ground herself at the right time.

“Over the past 24 hours, I have spoken with Governor Kemp of Georgia, Governor Cooper of North Carolina, and many local officials. I have shared with them that we will do everything in our power to help communities respond and recover,” she said.

“I plan to be on the ground as soon as possible, but as soon as possible without disrupting any emergency response operations, because that must be the highest priority in the first order of business.”

It’s all become predictably political.

This article was originally published by Sky.com. Read the original article here.