Hurricane Helene makes climate change a major issue in 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 remained on the sidelines for months.

Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Georgia on Wednesday to see the hardest-hit areas, two days after her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, was in the state and criticized the federal response to the storm that killed at least 178 people . Thousands of people in the Carolinas still lack running water, cell phone service and electricity.

On Wednesday, President Joe Biden visited some of the hardest-hit areas by helicopter. Biden, who was often called upon to survey damage and comfort victims of tornadoes, wildfires, tropical storms and other natural disasters, traveled to the Carolinas to take a closer look at the devastation caused by the hurricane. He is expected to visit Georgia and Florida later this week.

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

“No one can deny the impacts of the climate crisis anymore,” Biden said at a conference in Raleigh, the state capital. “If this happens, they must be brain dead.”

Meanwhile, Harris hugged and cuddled with family in hurricane-ravaged Augusta, Georgia.

“The hurricane and its aftermath caused real pain and trauma,” Harris said in front of a house damaged by the storm, with downed trees in the yard.

“We are here for the long haul,” she added.

The focus on the storm and its connection to climate change was notable after climate change was only barely mentioned in two presidential debates this year. Instead, the candidates focused on abortion rights, the economy, immigration and other issues.

The hurricane featured prominently in Tuesday’s vice presidential debate, where Republican J.D. Vance and Democrat Tim Walz were asked about the storm and the broader issue of climate change.

Both men called the hurricane a tragedy and agreed on the need for a strong federal response. But it was Walz, Minnesota’s governor, who put the storm in the context of a warming climate.

“There is no doubt that this thing came roaring onto the scene faster and stronger than anything we had ever seen,” he said.

Bob Henson, a meteorologist and writer at Yale Climate Connections, said it’s not surprising that Helene is including both the federal response to natural disasters and man-made climate change in campaign conversations.

“Weather disasters are often overlooked as a factor in important elections,” he said. “Helene is a widespread disaster that affects millions of Americans. This fits into several well-established links between hurricanes and climate change, including rapid intensification and intense downpours.”

More than 40 trillion gallons of rain drenched the Southeast last week, an amount that, if concentrated in North Carolina, would cover the state with 3 1/2 feet of water. “It’s an astronomical amount of rainfall,” said Ed Clark, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Water Center in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

During Tuesday’s debate, Walz credited Vance with previous statements in which he acknowledged that climate change is a problem. But he noted that Trump has called climate change a “hoax” and joked that rising sea levels “will create more beachfront properties to invest in.”

Trump said in Tuesday’s speech that “the planet has actually gotten a little colder lately,” and added: “Climate change is everything.”

According to the European climate service Copernicus, the summer of 2024 was the hottest on record, which means this year will likely be the warmest in human history. Global records were broken just last year as human-caused climate change, with a temporary boost from El Niño, continues to increase temperatures and extreme weather, scientists say.

Vance, the Ohio senator, said he and Trump support clean air and clean water and “want to make the environment cleaner and safer.” statute.

Vance dodged a question about whether he agreed with Trump’s statement that climate change is a hoax. “The president said that if Democrats – particularly Kamala Harris and her leadership – really believed that climate change was serious, what they would do is increase production and increase energy production in the United States of America. And that’s not what they do,” he said.

“The view that carbon (dioxide) emissions are driving all climate change. Well, let’s say it’s true, for the sake of argument. So we’re not arguing about weird science. If you believe that, what would you like to do?” he asked Vance.