AUGUSTA — The motorcade carrying Vice President Kamala Harris maneuvered around a downed tree toppled by Hurricane Helene, through neighborhoods strewn with debris and past intersections lined by still-shuttered stores.

The parade of cars veered past a fallen power line blocking a string of homes, a tidy ranch house bisected by a fallen oak and finally to a hillside street punctured by a power pole that splintered like a toothpick during Helene’s wrath.

Once there, Harris consoled families who may never be able to return to their ruined homes as she promised ongoing federal support. Her message, she said, was simple: “We are here for the long haul.”

The visit Wednesday was no campaign rally, but an official stop to thank emergency responders, highlight recovery efforts and discuss the aftermath of a storm that carved a ruinous path across Georgia and left at least 25 residents dead, including seven in Augusta.

Still, her arrival at the political battleground came at a crucial moment in the fast-arriving race for the White House — and only days after former President Donald Trump derided the Biden administration’s response to the storm during his own visit to Georgia.

Harris and Trump are neck and neck in most polls of Georgia, one of the few competitive states in the November race. And both candidates see Georgia as a linchpin in their election strategies.

There are still more than 400,000 Georgians without power from the storm, with much of the outages concentrated in Augusta, Savannah and Valdosta. The White House declared 41 Georgia counties a federal disaster, and many more could soon be added to the list.

In Wrightsville, first responders gather early to talk about today’s Hurricane Helene cleanup mission. There’s still plenty of roads to be cleared, supplies to be delivered and people in need in this east Georgia town walloped by the storm. pic.twitter.com/SSYCTN5bpt
— Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) October 2, 2024

Chris Stallings, director of Georgia’s emergency agency, said early estimates project at least $300 million in damage — but he said that tally will soar as more counties compile their reports of the deadliest storm to ravage the state in decades.

“Everyone’s tired. Everyone’s frustrated,” Gov. Brian Kemp told first responders earlier Wednesday in Wrightsville during one of several stops in hard-hit rural communities. “But we’ve never seen a storm like this before.”

The governor called up 2,500 Georgia National Guard troops to assist with the recovery and signed an order Tuesday to suspend the sales tax on gas. Some 20,000 Georgia Power workers have fanned out across the state, along with dozens of chain saw squads clearing roads.

Shortly after her arrival, Harris was whisked to a utility building near downtown Augusta to receive a closed-door briefing on the region’s response.

“These are very difficult times,” she told U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff and about a dozen local officials crammed into a second-floor conference room. ”And in a moment of crisis, I think that really does bring out the best in us.”

The storm killed more than 130 people in six states, and officials are still uncovering the extent of the damage. President Joe Biden is set to visit Georgia on Thursday, while Trump visited Valdosta on Monday.

Along with highlighting a local nonprofit, the Republican quickly injected politics into the visit to the South Georgia town. He called Biden’s response lethargic, questioned why Harris hadn’t visited and falsely claimed the president was “nonresponsive” to Kemp.

In fact, Kemp said he spoke to Biden on Sunday and praised the president’s efforts to help Georgia. Biden said Trump was “lying, and the governor told him he was lying.”

Harris made a point to praise Kemp for “his leadership and his close coordination” with the White House as she announced approval of his request for the federal government to reimburse 100% of local costs to cover the response to the disaster.

”We are at our best when we work together and coordinate resources, coordinate our communities to the maximum effect for the community,” she said.

A pivotal moment

The collision of campaign politics and disaster response heightened Tuesday when the White House released an initial list of 11 Georgia counties that federal officials declared a federal disaster, a designation that unlocks key aid.

Kemp, a second-term Republican, and the state’s bipartisan congressional delegation pressed for 90 counties to be included on the list, and many local and state officials bristled at what they saw as a snub. Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and other Trump allies in Georgia quickly criticized Biden. So did the Republican nominee‘s Georgia campaign.

Credit: TNS

Credit: TNS

“Thousands of Georgians are currently without access to basic resources including electricity, food and water, and dozens have lost their lives as a result of this storm,” Trump spokeswoman Morgan Ackley said. “Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have once again failed to lead during a time of crisis.”

Other senior Georgia Republicans held their fire and worked with Democrats to lobby the White House to expand the list. Kemp reached a senior Biden aide with an urgent message. Within hours, 30 more counties were added.

“I called the White House and said, ‘Y’all don’t understand the message you’re sending to counties that have the same damage,’ ” he said Wednesday. “Right now, people think they’re invisible. And they listened to us.”

The recovery marks a crucial time for Georgia and the presidential race. Trump’s campaign views the state as a pillar of his campaign strategy. Harris is hoping to keep it in the Democratic column after Biden narrowly won the state in 2020.

Her trip to Georgia, confirmed only a day earlier, put on display how the storm scrambled the campaign schedule in the final weeks of the race.

Harris was set to join her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, on a bus tour across Pennsylvania on Wednesday following Tuesday’s vice presidential debate. But she rearranged her schedule as the storm’s wreckage came into clearer focus.

And Biden ordered the Pentagon to deploy as many as 1,000 active-duty troops to assist with Helene aid efforts before he visited North Carolina, where swollen rivers and washed-out roads have hampered recovery efforts.

Harris said the White House could take more steps to speed the recovery, which in some communities could take months. But she said there was a silver lining in the disaster.

“In these moments of hardship, one of the beauties about who we are as a country is people really rally together and show the best of who they are in moments of crisis,” she said. “And we’ve seen that throughout the region.”