(NewsNation) — Vice President-elect JD Vance on Friday surveyed damage from Hurricane Helene and talked to first responders in western North Carolina in one of his first public appearances since the November election.
The hurricane struck in late September and caused at least $53 billion in damage in North Carolina, according to a state government estimate. More than 100 North Carolina residents died from the storm, which the state estimates damaged more than 120,000 homes, at least 6,000 miles of roads and over 160 sewer and water systems.
The incoming vice president and his wife, Usha, visited the Fairview Volunteer Fire Department, where he learned that the building flooded with 4 to 6 inches of water and that roughly a dozen people got walking pneumonia as they responded to the hurricane’s destruction. Power outages meant that some first responders could not talk with their own families for several days.
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State lawmakers have already allocated more than $900 million in disaster relief, but North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has sought at least $3.9 billion. The Democratic governor and other state leaders have now asked the federal government for $25 billion in aid.
Hundreds of miles of roads have been reopened and water systems are back online, but the work has been slow-going. More than 100,000 western North Carolina residents were told just two weeks ago that they could once again use water coming out of Asheville’s water system to bathe and to drink from the faucet. A destroyed water system in at least one isolated county could take years to rebuild.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
