President Joe Biden delivered remarks on recovery efforts in Ray City, Georgia on Thursday as he continued his tour of areas devastated by Hurricane Helene.
Watch Biden’s remarks in the player above.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said during a news conference at the State Capitol that the death toll in that state had risen from 25 to 33 people killed due to Hurricane Helene.
“Unfortunately, we have up to 33 fatalities in the state of Georgia right now and close to 200 impacted in total by the storm,” Kemp said Thursday. “Our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to the families of those that have just experienced this heartbreak in this tragedy, to the communities that are affected.”
Kemp said that the new deaths include month-old twin boys Khyzier and Khazmir Williams, who are the youngest known victims of the storm who died alongside their mother, Kobe Williams, when a large tree fell through the roof of their trailer home in Thomson, Georgia.
Other young victims include a 7-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy from nearby Washington County, Georgia.
The death toll could rise higher still as searchers made their way toward the hardest to reach places in the mountains of western North Carolina, where the storm washed out roads and knocked out electricity, water, and cellular service.
READ MORE: Helene’s death toll hits 200 and may keep rising as crews enter most remote areas hit by storm
Officials in Georgia and North Carolina added to their states’ grim tallies, padding an overall count that has already made Helene the deadliest storm to hit the U.S. mainland since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
The governor updating reporters on the storm said about 85 percent of Georgia Power customers have power again and crews hope to increase that number to 90 percent by Friday.
Kemp said that 200,000 Georgia Power outages remain and Georgia EMCs (Electric Membership Corporation) report they have around 162,000 power outages.
The governor reported at least 3,200 trees have fallen on power lines across the state leaving Georgia Power to replace close to 8,000 power poles.
“This is unprecedented that we’re dealing with,” he said.
“Previously, the worst storm Georgia Power had ever dealt with, they had 1700 poles that needed to be replaced. Currently, there are over 8000 that have to be replaced. So this is just a significantly larger power outage storm that we’ve ever dealt with in the history of our state,” the governor said.
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 180 people. Thousands of people in the Carolinas still lack running water, cellphone service, and electricity.
Biden toured some of the hardest-hit areas by helicopter on Wednesday and plans to tour the damage in the Valdosta area Thursday afternoon.
WATCH: Biden and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper hold briefing on Helene recovery
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 to get a closer look at the hurricane devastation.
Kemp says he spoke with the president and thanked him for extending the disaster declaration to 41 counties in the state. He told the president that other counties are frustrated they are not yet on the list and that a bipartisan effort from Georgia leaders will push for more to get added.
The Biden administration and FEMA have approved to cover 100 percent of the cleanup costs for the first three months of recovery for the state.
GEMA director Chris Stallings said that up to now, the state is reporting close to $417 million in damages from the hurricane adding that number is expected to grow as they collect data from each county.
Kemp emphasized the tremendous devastation to the agriculture industry in the state from the storm.
“The economy was not good before the storm and it’s worse now,” Kemp said.
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