Asheville (United States) (AFP) - US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday witnessed first-hand the catastrophic destruction wrought by Hurricane Helene, as several thousand responders joined all-out efforts to rescue residents and care for millions impacted by the storm.

Biden flew into the Carolinas and his deputy headed to Georgia after Harris’s election rival Donald Trump sought to turn their handling of the disaster into campaign fodder.

Biden arrived in South Carolina and greeted officials who briefed him on the sprawling rescue and recovery effort – an operation featuring more than 10,000 federal officials, emergency responders and National Guard across the US southeast after the enormous storm left at least 159 people dead in six states.

He then flew by helicopter over the flood-hit city of Asheville, North Carolina, where staggering destruction was visible below including collapsed bridges, lakes filled with debris, buildings demolished and roads washed away.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, traveling with the president, described Helene as a storm of “historic strength” that brought calamitous flooding to cities and remote mountain communities.

“We have towns that have disappeared, literally,” he said. “This is a multi-billion-dollar, multi-year recovery.”

- Towns and villages cut off -

Biden announced the deployment of up to 1,000 active-duty soldiers to North Carolina to boost emergency response efforts including the “fight to save lives” in devastated communities.

“These soldiers will speed up the delivery of life-saving supplies of food, water, and medicine to isolated communities in North Carolina,” the president said in a statement.

“We are here for you – and we will stay here for as long as it takes.”

Harris, who replaced Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee for the November 5 election, flew separately to the southern state of Georgia, which has also been badly hit.

She visited an operations center in Augusta where she praised emergency workers and the ongoing response.

“It really does represent some of the best of what we each know can be done, especially when we coordinate around local, state, federal resources to meet the needs of people who must be seen, who must be heard,” Harris said.

Afterward she met with residents in a storm-ravaged Augusta neighborhood. Debris was scattered across the road and toppled trees were visible, including one that fell on a house.

North Carolina and Georgia are two of the seven crucial swing states likely to decide the result of the US election. Early voting has already begun in several states.

The White House announced Biden will also travel on Thursday to Florida, where Helene roared ashore last week as a Category 4 hurricane, and Georgia.

Deluges triggered by Helene have caused huge damage in the Appalachian mountains, with towns and villages cut off.

In Tennessee, a massive search operation was underway near the Nolichucky River, where the water flow had reached record levels.

“There are people still missing,” Governor Bill Lee told a press conference. “We’re in the middle of what is a remarkably difficult and tragic unfolding in east Tennessee.”

- ‘He’s lying’ -

The Biden and Harris visits come a day after the vice presidential candidates, Republican J.D. Vance and Democrat Tim Walz, faced off in TV debate – the last scheduled on-stage showdown before election day.

The pair acknowledged common ground about the storm response, with Vance saying: “We want as robust and aggressive a federal response as we can get to save as many lives as possible.”

But Republican former president Trump earlier sought to make political capital out of the disaster, accusing the Biden administration, without evidence, of ignoring the crisis and denying help to his supporters.

Responding to the accusations, Biden told reporters Monday that Trump was “lying” and termed his attacks “irresponsible.”

The political storm over Helene comes as Biden and Harris endure a series of crises with barely a month until the knife-edge election.

As they coordinate the hurricane response, Biden and Harris are also contending with escalating tensions between Iran and Israel, and a strike by dockworkers that threatens the country’s economy, a major issue ahead of the November 5 poll.