Hurricane Helene brings climate change to forefront of the presidential campaign

WASHINGTON (AP) — The devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene has brought climate change to the forefront of the presidential campaign after the issue lingered on the margins for months.

Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Georgia Wednesday to see hard-hit areas, two days after her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, was in the state and criticized the federal response to the storm, which has killed at least 200 people in the Southeast. Helene is the deadliest storm to hit the U.S. mainland since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

President Joe Biden toured some of the hardest-hit areas by helicopter on Wednesday and Thursday. Biden, who has frequently been called on to survey damage and console victims after tornadoes, wildfires, tropical storms and other natural disasters, traveled to the Carolinas, Florida and Georgia to get a closer look at the hurricane devastation.

“Storms are getting stronger and stronger,” Biden said Wednesday after surveying damage near Asheville, North Carolina. At least 70 people died in the state.

“Nobody can deny the impact of the climate crisis any more,’' Biden said at a briefing in Raleigh. “They must be brain dead if they do.”

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