NORTH CAROLINA: The death toll rose to 130 on Wednesday as former president Donald Trump criticised President Joe Biden’s response to Hurricane Helene.
Currently, at least 130 people are dead with 17 still missing. 56 have died in North Carolina. 30 in South Carolina. 25 in Georgia. 11 in Florida. Six in Tennessee. And two in Virginia.
The mayor of Asheville, North Carolina, Esther Manheimer, also stated that the about 600 people are currently unaccounted for.
With fears that the death toll will continue to rise, as one senior official claiming the figure could reach 600, Trump engaged in his favourite past time, baseless accusations. The Republican nominee claimed that that the current administration was “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.”
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President Biden didn’t hold back in his response claiming that he doesn’t care what Trump says about him, but does care “what he communicates to the people that are in need. He implies that were not doing everything possible. We are.”
Officials have so far rescued over 1400 victims of the storm.
Trump’s lack of self-awareness was palpable, forgetting, or more likely refusing to acknowledge his disastrous dealings with Puerto Rico. After Hurricane Maria ravaged the US territory in 2017, he refused to acknowledge the nearly 3000 lives lost.
The devastated people of Puerto Rico were left with $90 billion dollars in damages, for which the federal government under Trump allocated $40 billion dollars. Roughly a third of that was received by 2019.
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Under Trump, $20 billion dollars in Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds were approved, but the agency stalled the relief package in 2019 and imposed additional restriction making it difficult for the US territory to access the funds.
Trump claimed that Puerto Rico received to much, stating the amount was “way out of proportion to what Texas and Florida and others have gotten.”
Weeks before the 2020 presidential election, Trump released an additional $13 billion in assistance for the territory.