After days of fierce criticism and hours before he was due to arrive in the Carolinas to survey Hurricane Helene’s damage, President Biden announced that he is calling up to a 1,000 active-duty soldiers to aid in rescue efforts. 

The White House said on Wednesday that the president has directed the Department of Defense to “deploy up to 1,000 active-duty soldiers to support the delivery of food, water, and other critical commodities to communities impacted by Hurricane Helene,” effective immediately. The White House said the deployments will “provide additional manpower and logistics capabilities” to reach the hardest hit areas as soon as possible. 

The death toll from the devastating hurricane has reached more than 175 people, NBC News reports, with hundreds of others still missing and 1.3 million people in the Southeast without power. Catastrophic flooding — so intense that it’s being called “biblical devastation” in western North Carolina — has decimated roads and towns and left residents without food, water, cell service, gas, and electricity across the southeastern states.

Mr. Biden’s announcement deploying active-duty troops to the area came hours before the president was set to arrive in the Carolinas on Wednesday to survey the hurricane damage. Vice President Harris on Wednesday is traveling to affected areas in Georgia and will head to North Carolina “in the coming days,” the White House said. 

Both of their visits come two days after President Trump visited affected areas in Georgia and distributed water and other relief supplies. Trump and Republicans have been denouncing Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris for not arriving at the scene sooner, in what’s been described as “storm politics.” It’s not the first time Mr. Biden has been criticized for his disaster response, as the president faced national scrutiny for his handling of the train derailment at East Palestine, Ohio last year. 

“It’s a complete ‘catastrophe in Asheville, North Carolina,’” RNC Research wrote on X earlier this week, as the Sun reported. “Biden is at the beach and Kamala is too busy with her San Francisco fundraisers to notice,” the group said, referring to Ms. Harris’s West Coast campaigning. 

Mr. Biden, for his part, insists his administration is doing everything it can to assist in rescue and recovery efforts across the Southeast. A White House fact sheet says that the 1,000 soldiers being deployed are in addition to other Department of Defense efforts to assist FEMA, including using Army and Navy helicopters to move supplies where roads are blocked, using Air Force resources for search and rescue efforts, and driving high wheeled vehicles through damaged terrain to move supplies in areas that cars can’t get through.  

“The Administration is prioritizing life-saving and life-sustaining response efforts in impacted communities,” the White House said on Wednesday, “as well as ensuring people displaced from the storm have prompt access to Federal resources that will enable them to both purchase essential items and begin their road to recovery and rebuilding.”