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Hurricane Helene has left a large swath of destruction in its wake, claiming more than 100 lives across six different states. People in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Virginia need their power back, they need access to clean water and cellphone service, they need roads to be passable again, they need flood waters to recede, they may even need to be rescued from their homes — if their homes still exist. And eventually, they will need help rebuilding.
What they don’t need is for this ongoing devastation to become another flash point in the presidential election. This should be a time of shared resolve and support for those in need, not a rush to knock politician opponents or get in front of cameras.
“The people in my district really don’t want to see politicians,” Republican Rep. Chuck Edwards of North Carolina said after his district was hit hard by flooding, according to Politico. “They want to see water. Food. Cell towers and power restored, and the ability to contact their loved ones. Photo ops are not what’s needed.”
Those actual, pressing needs are substantial. Supplies are being rushed into still-isolated areas like Asheville, North Carolina, on Monday. Flood waters, collapsed roads and other hazards continue to cut communities off from vital services. This requires immediate and sustained support from local, state and federal agencies. What it doesn’t require, however, are national politicians parachuting in while rescue and immediate recovery efforts are still underway.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was set to visit Valdosta, Georgia, on Monday to receive a briefing on the damage there, help distribute supplies and make remarks. The former president has already knocked both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in the wake of the storm. Trump said that Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, “ought to be down in the area.” The White House has indicated that both Biden and Harris will visit the area once it would not be disruptive to the ongoing storm response efforts.
Despite the unhelpful rhetoric from Trump, this must not turn into a contest of which candidate can appear the most involved in relief efforts. The people whose lives have been upended by Helene definitely need resources and attention from officials, especially the Biden administration. But the appearance of help and care cannot supersede actual assistance. Each of the presidential campaigns would do well to help from a distance rather than complicating ongoing work on the ground.
Several of the states rocked by Hurricane Helene may be political battlegrounds in this year’s election, but all of the states impacted need attention and support — not because their voters could sway the election, but because Americans everywhere deserve support when natural disasters strike and upend their lives.
Whether it is a hurricane in the Southeast, record flooding in Maine, tornadoes in Kentucky or wildfires in Hawaii, federal emergency relief funding must follow to help rescue and rebuild. But beyond this need for collective support in the wake of a storm, we must also collectively awake to the reality that these storms are becoming more frequent and stronger. Climate scientists have been telling us for a while that storms and damage like this were likely to happen due to climate change, and for anyone who hasn’t been listening to them, it is past time to learn from the experiences in Maine and across the country.
Elected leaders should not be stunned by this type of devastation, as Biden apparently was. They sadly should be prepared for it, at every level of government from the city council to the White House.
“It’s something like we’ve never seen in this part of the state,” Republican Rep. Diana Harshbarger said of the damage in her state of Tennessee, according to The Associated Press. “Who would have thought a hurricane would do this much damage in East Tennessee?”
With stronger storms and shifting weather patterns, officials and the communities they serve need to expect the unexpected and plan for the unprecedented. They need to make their communities more resilient to face a changing climate. And when a crisis like Hurricane Helene unfolds, the rest of us need to be ready to help people as they recover.
