President Joe Biden had a message for North Carolina – the nation has your back.
Biden backed that up with an announcement Wednesday that active military will be helping western North Carolina with recovery efforts after the damaged caused by Hurricane Helene.
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"The United States, the nation, the nation has your back," Biden said. "We're not leaving until you're back on your feet completely."
Despite Biden's visit, the mood was pretty grim in the situation room at the North Carolina Emergency Operations Center in Raleigh.
“We’ve been working non-stop to provide the support you need and the survivors need,” Biden said. “My heart goes out to everyone who has experienced the unthinkable loss.”
The room overflowed with first responders, National Guard members and military officials who were on hand to brief Biden on the status of rescue and relief efforts in Western North Carolina and to hear what other help they can expect.
"I've seen a lot looking at Asheville and just imagining what must have been like sitting along those rivers and streams as all that rain came down," Biden said.
Wednesday's briefing also included Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper.
"I know that we can come back and we will come back because the people of western North Carolina are resilient," Cooper said.
On Wednesday, Biden also visited Greenville, South Carolina, where he took an aerial tour of the devastation from Hurricane Helene. Biden ordered the Pentagon to deploy up to 1,000 active-duty troops to assist with aid efforts as rescue workers continued dangerous rescue missions in remote mountain communities.
Biden’s visit to the Carolinas came as the death toll from the storm rose to more than 175 people on Wednesday, making Helene the deadliest hurricane to strike the mainland United States since Katrina, which caused nearly 1,400 deaths in 2005, according to statistics from the National Hurricane Center.
Biden thanked those who have been working non-stop in very difficult conditions. According to North Carolina Emergency Director Will Ray, about 1,600 state and federal responders are already on the ground in the affected areas. Biden said active military will now be helping as well.
WRAL News and reporters were not given the opportunity to ask questions. However, WRAL News has asked the White House and Gov. Roy Cooper's office to explain why it’s taken so long for this to happen in a state with so many active military members just a few hours away.
Peter Ford, a spokesperson from Cooper's office, said the governor made the request for active military assistance on Monday. On Tuesday, Cooper learned that the aid would come to North Carolina.
"National Guard soldiers have been activated since before this storm and more than 1,000 are currently deployed in western North Carolina," Ford wrote in a statement. "Given the scope and scale of the devastation, it is clear that we will need a sustained presence and the governor requested that the president make available all resources to help meet the needs of the coming weeks.
Ford said deploying active duty military personnel is rare and emphasizes the scope of Helene's damage. He said the last time North Carolina deployed active duty military for a weather event was after Hurricane Floyd in 1999.
Although the storm did extensive damage in parts of Florida, many of the hardest-hit places were hundreds of miles from any coastline. Floods and landslides rendered roads useless, turned downtowns into ghost towns and reduced entire neighborhoods to piles of rubble.
Broken water systems, downed power lines and poor cellphone service are complicating rescue and recovery efforts. The active-duty troops Biden is deploying from Fort Liberty in Fayetteville, North Carolina, will join more than 6,000 National Guard members and 4,800 federal aid workers already spread out across devastated parts of the Southeast.
On Thursday, Biden is scheduled to meet with leaders in Florida and Georgia.
Information from The New York Times was used in this report.