Western NC

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has signed the state’s first relief package to address Hurricane Helene’s devastation. The bill signed Thursday allocates $273 million for immediate needs and gives flexibility to agencies and displaced residents in western counties. The Republican-dominated legislature approved the measure unanimously the day before. Nearly all the money will be used to meet the federal government’s match for state and local disaster assistance programs. Other provisions help nutrition workers in closed schools. The money is coming from the state’s large savings reserve. The bill also changes how upcoming elections are conducted in 25 counties. More Helene relief legislation could advance in two weeks.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris has pledged ongoing federal support for those affected by Hurricane Helene as she visited North Carolina. The Democratic presidential nominee met with state and local officials Saturday in Charlotte, where she praised the work of strangers helping strangers. She also helped pack aid kits and met with volunteers, calling them “heroes among us.” It was her second trip in four days to the disaster zone. Republican nominee Donald Trump was in the state a day earlier, and has been spreading false claims about the federal response to the disaster. But Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper says that federal officials have been on the ground in the state helping “since the very beginning.”

SWANNANOA, N.C. (AP) — Rescuers are scouring the mountains of western North Carolina for anyone still unaccounted for since Hurricane Helene’s remnants caused catastrophic damage across the Southeast. The death toll Tuesday reached 166 people. Residents in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina have been lining up for water and food and hunting for cellular signals after the storm deluged the region. In Augusta, Georgia, people waited in line for more than three hours to try to get water from one of five centers set up to serve more than 200,000 people. President Joe Biden plans to survey storm damage on Wednesday.