President Biden ordered 500 additional active-duty troops to support on-the-ground efforts; 1,500 troops now mobilized to assist National Guard and Federal personnel
Under President Biden and Vice President Harris's direction, the Administration continues to mobilize a robust, intensive, and whole-of-government response to the impacts of Hurricane Helene. As life-saving response efforts continue in heavily impacted areas, the Administration is also working to ensure communities across the Southeast have prompt access to Federal resources that will enable them to both purchase essential items and begin their road to recovery and rebuilding.
Today, in response to North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper's request for additional support, President Biden ordered that another 500 active-duty troops move into Western North Carolina. With a total of 1,500 troops now supplementing a robust on-the-ground effort - including more than 6,100 National Guardsmen and more than 7,000 Federal personnel - the Biden-Harris Administration is mobilizing all relevant resources to support families as they begin their road to rebuilding.
The Administration has already helped thousands of Hurricane Helene survivors jumpstart their recoveries with more than $137 million in Federal assistance - with more to come. Over the last several days, the Administration has contacted nearly 450 state, city, and county officials in impacted states to ensure they have the support and resources they need.
The Administration is committed to ensuring that all communities receive accurate information that is essential to their recovery. The Administration, including FEMA, has been tracking and combatting the significant amount of false information circulating online related to the Federal response - which can discourage people from seeking critical and life-saving assistance. The Administration is actively working to identify and combat this misinformation and disinformation and support survivors in every possible way.
President Biden and Vice President Harris have traveled throughout the Southeast this week to meet with impacted communities and, during their travels, have reaffirmed that the Administration will be with impacted communities every step of the way, no matter how long it takes, to ensure they have the support and resources they need to recover and rebuild. While there is a long way to go on the road to full recovery and rebuilding, Republican and Democratic leaders from across the country have praised the Administration's well-coordinated response and surge of resources in the aftermath of Helene's landfall - including South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, and Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer.
Additionally, the Federal government is closely monitoring Tropical Storm Milton in the Gulf of Mexico, which has the potential to have significant impacts along the West coast of the Florida Peninsula by mid-next week. Residents in Florida should remain alert, listen to local officials, and make additional preparations as needed.
Additional updates on the Federal response include:
Active-Duty Service Members Delivering Life-Saving Supplies to North Carolinians
In response to North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper's request for additional support, today President Biden directed another 500 troops move into Western North Carolina. These troops have advanced technological assets to provide greater situational awareness on the ground and will assist with future resource planning across the region. These additional 500 troops supplement the nearly 1,000 soldiers from Fort Liberty, North Carolina, and Fort Campbell, Kentucky, who have already been mobilized through the Department of Defense and in coordination with FEMA to support the residents and affected counties in Western North Carolina.
In support of the state and North Carolina National Guard, these active-duty troops are focusing their efforts on moving valuable commodities-like food and water-to distribution sites, getting those commodities to survivors in areas that are hard to reach. They are also working on road stabilization and route clearance activities.
In addition, the Department of Defense is providing rotary wing assets from the Army and Navy for personnel movement and commodity distribution across the affected region. Fixed and rotary wing assets from the Air Force are conducting search and rescue activities.
The US Army Corps of Engineers has established 12 Emergency Operations Centers across the southeast, with three in North Carolina. The Army Corps of Engineers also has emergency power teams conducting assessments in North Carolina and Georgia as well as water/wastewater assessments, bridge and road inspections, and debris removal efforts in North Carolina and Florida.
Over 6,000 National Guard personnel from 18 States are spearheading the response effort across the impacted region, providing critical life-saving and life-sustaining support to the victims of this unprecedented natural disaster.
Supporting On-The-Ground Response Efforts
The Biden-Harris Administration is actively working alongside state, local and Tribal partners to assess damage and support those affected by the disaster.
The Federal government has already helped thousands of Hurricane Helene survivors jumpstart their recoveries with more than $137 million in federal assistance. More than 7,000 personnel from across the Federal workforce are deployed, including U.S. Forest Service Saw Teams to help clear debris in remote areas. To date, FEMA has shipped over 14.9 million meals, more than 13.9 million liters of water, more than 505,000 tarps to the region, and installed 157 generators at critical facilities such as hospitals and water treatment plants.
President Biden has approved 100 percent Federal cost share for Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. This means that the Federal government will cover 100 percent of the costs associated with things like debris removal, first responders, search and rescue, shelters, and mass feeding.
Disaster survivors in certain areas of Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia can begin their recovery process by applying for federal assistance through FEMA. People with damage to their homes or personal property who live in the designated areas should apply for assistance, which may include upfront funds to help with essential items like food, water, baby formula, breastfeeding supplies and other emergency supplies. Funds may also be available to repair storm-related damage to homes and personal property, as well as assistance to find a temporary place to stay. Homeowners and renters with damage to their home or personal property from previous disasters, whether they received FEMA funds or not, are still eligible to apply for and receive assistance for Hurricane Helene.
Repairing Roads and Re-Establishing Critical Routes
The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) announced the immediate availability of $100 million in Emergency Relief funds for the North Carolina Department of Transportation to help pay for the costs of immediate emergency work resulting from Hurricane Helene flood damage. The Department also announced $32 million for the Tennessee Department of Transportation. This is in addition to the $2 million announced for use by the South Carolina Department of Transportation.
These funds will allow the states to act more quickly to fund eligible repairs to their damaged facilities. FHWA's Emergency Relief program provides funding to states, territories, Tribes, and Federal Land Management Agencies for highways and bridges damaged by natural disasters or catastrophic events. These Emergency Relief funds, provided through the "quick release" process, are an initial installment of funds toward restoring this essential transportation link. Additional funds needed to repair damage will be supported by the Emergency Relief program through nationwide funding allocations.
Restoring Power and Critical Communications
As of this morning, approximately 384,000 customers are without power, down more than 91 percent from the region-wide peak of 4.6 million on September 27. At least 50,000 personnel from 41 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada are responding to power outages in the Southeast and Appalachia.
Additionally, FirstNet, an independent agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, has been instrumental in providing critical communication support during Hurricane Helene. The FirstNet Response Operations Group deployed 19 SatCOLTs (light trucks with mounted cellular towers) and numerous portable cellular sites to the hardest-hit areas, including North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida. So far, FirstNet has provided cell service and internet access to over 75,000 first responders and survivors affected by the storm, while power and connectivity is being restored.
Calling on Congress to Provide More Disaster Assistance to Communities
President Biden wrote a letter to Congressional leaders calling on them to provide more funding for disaster relief efforts. President Biden warned that most urgently, the Small Business Administration's (SBA) disaster loan program will run out of funding in a matter of weeks and well before the Congress is planning to reconvene. Small businesses and individuals in affected areas depend on disaster loans as a critical lifeline during difficult times. In fact, for individual disaster survivors, SBA loans are often the largest source of Federal disaster recovery funds. Renters and homeowners use these loans to repair and rebuild their homes as well as replace or repair damaged property including their personal vehicles, while businesses use them to cover basic operating expenses. President Biden urged the Congress to restore this funding immediately. SBA is already receiving over 3,000 loan applications a day from people affected by Hurricane Helene.
The President also warned that, while FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund has the resources it requires right now to meet immediate needs, the fund does face a shortfall at the end of the year. Without additional funding, FEMA would be required to forego longer-term recovery activities in favor of meeting urgent needs. He called on the Congress to provide FEMA additional resources to avoid forcing that kind of unnecessary trade-off and to give the communities we serve the certainty of knowing that help will be ongoing, both for the short- and long-term.
Administration's Ongoing Response Efforts Supplement Significant Pre-Landfall Preparations
The Biden-Harris Administration took significant steps and made extensive preparations prior to Helene making landfall. Two days in advance of Helene making landfall on September 26, the Administration began preparations in coordination with State and local partners.
On September 24, FEMA stood up their National Response Coordination Center (NRCC) at FEMA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., charged with monitoring the storm's track and coordinating national-level emergency response teams. FEMA Region V also activated its Regional Response Coordination Center in Atlanta on September 24, gathering personnel to monitor the storm on the ground close to the anticipated impact and begin planning a response and deployed Incident Management Teams to state Emergency Operations Centers in the storm's path to coordinate and speed Federal support to response operations.
At the President's direction, 1,500 Federal personnel were deployed to the region, including 14 Urban Search and Rescue teams (940 personnel) to potentially affected states, including eight teams to Florida; two teams to Georgia; and four teams to North Carolina and FEMA setup up an incident support base in coordination with the 42d Air Base Wing at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama.
The Federal government pre-staged in the region:
- More than 2.7 million meals, 1.6 million liters of water, 50,000 tarps, 10,000 cots, and 20,000 blankets to support sheltering needs in impacted communities;
- Tanker trucks with 70,000 gallons of diesel fuel and 40,000 gallons of gasoline to surge to impacted communities once the storm passed to help alleviate any fuel shortages; and;
- Hundreds of ambulances to assist with the movement of any patients out of impacted hospitals or other facilities.
In advance of landfall, President Biden approved five Governors' Emergency Declaration requests for Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina prior to Helene's landfall. He also immediately approved Emergency Declaration requests that the Governors of Tennessee and Virginia submitted shortly after landfall. These declarations authorized FEMA to reimburse State and local jurisdictions for costs incurred for pre-storm emergency measures including: evacuating and sheltering residents, search and rescue operations, sandbagging, covering costs associated with Emergency Operation Centers, and first responder activation.
