AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris he handed out meals, hugged a shocked family and conducted surveys Hurricane Helene an “extraordinary” path of destruction through Georgia on Wednesday as she left the campaign trail to pledge federal aid and look on firsthand at scenes of downed trees, damaged homes and lives turned the wrong way up.

She visited Augusta, where power lines ran along the sidewalk and utility poles were cracked and broken. The vp spoke from a podium in front of a house with a fallen tree balanced on it, paying tribute to those that died in the disaster while attempting to set a tone of unity and hope for communities now facing an extended and expensive rebuilding process.

Harris and President Joe Biden, who visited the Carolinas on Wednesday, sought to show commitment and competence in helping devastated communities following former Republican President Donald Trump’s false claims about their administration’s response.

Harris said she desired to “see the damage in person, which is unusual.” She expressed admiration for a way “people unite. People help complete strangers.”

The Democratic presidential candidate said it shows that “the vast majority of us have much more in common than what divides us” – echoing an announcement she often uses during the campaign.

Before delivering the remarks, Harris could possibly be seen hugging and cuddling her family of 5 as they handled the effects of the storm.

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

Harris also visited a Red Cross relief center and received information from local officials praising those working to “meet the needs of people who need to be seen and heard.”

“I’m listening now,” she said.

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Brittany Smith, an Augusta resident, emerged from the distribution center with Styrofoam boxes of food and cups of fruit, elated that she had taken a photograph with the vp. She said there was a hole in her roof and she needed to send her children some other place since it wasn’t secure there.

Harris’ visit, she said, “improved the situation” despite the difficulties.

Smith stated that she encouraged Harris to go to town relatively than simply appear on television. “She is a person. She’s not just a voice.”

About 200 miles north in the Carolinas, Biden was also surveying the storm’s effects. With many roads in the area inaccessible, he flew a helicopter over fallen trees, twisted metal and towering piles of debris in Asheville’s often tourist-friendly downtown.

From the air, Biden saw flooded roads, piles of shredded wood and displaced sandbags, emergency trucks and downed power lines. In one place, houses were partially underwater and it was difficult to differentiate the lake from the land.

Visits to disaster zones are a familiar responsibility for Biden, who was often called upon to survey damage and provide comfort to victims of tornadoes, wildfires and tropical storms. However, it was Harris’ first visit to the affected area as vp.

Because of the devastation Biden endured on Wednesday, he was unable to exit and comfort people in person, as Harris did in Georgia.

Biden was wearing a vest and boots, and before the plane ride, he hugged and grabbed the hand of Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer, who was at the airport in Greenville, South Carolina, to satisfy him. The mayor was visibly moved. they stated that they couldn’t close the only functional road in the area for Biden’s convoy.

Biden will return to the region on Thursday to go to Florida and Georgia, and Harris plans her own trip to North Carolina in the coming days as Helene’s aftermath continues to pose a political and humanitarian test for the administration.

Before leaving Washington, Biden mentioned how ongoing dockers’ strike could make it harder to deliver supplies to the hardest-hit areas.

“Natural disasters have incredible consequences. The last thing we need is a man-made disaster taking place in the ports,” he said. “We are already receiving pushback, we are hearing from residents in the region that they are having trouble getting the product they need because of the strike at the port.”

Harris is under particular scrutiny as her White House bid involves an end, and Helene’s path included battleground states Georgia and North Carolina.

The vp last visited natural disaster sites as a senator from California, including: when she traveled to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017 and when she walked through the charred wreckage in Paradise, California after the 2018 Campfire.

Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Harris’ campaign manager and former state director in her Senate office, said the vp uses her experience comforting victims as a courtroom prosecutor to attach with people after tragedies.

She said the trip to Georgia was a likelihood for Harris “to continue to show her leadership and ability to get things done, compared to Donald Trump and J.D. Vance who want to dismantle essential services and the role that government should play “.

Trump, the Republican candidate, on Monday, he traveled to Valdosta, Georgia with a Christian charity that brought trucks with fuel, food, water and other supplies. The former president accused Biden of “asleep” and not responding to calls from Georgia’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp. However, Kemp spoke with Biden the previous day and the governor said the state was getting every part it needed.

Biden was furious with Trump’s claims, saying Trump “is lying and the governor told him he was lying.”

The storm’s death toll rose to a minimum of 178, and some places were without power, running water and cell service. Later Wednesday, Biden flew to Raleigh, North Carolina, for a briefing with officials and called Helene a “storm of historic proportions.”

“The nation supports you,” Biden said.

The tone of each Harris and Biden was markedly different from Trump, who claimed without evidence that Democratic leaders were withholding aid from Republican areas. He recently threatened to withhold aid from California for the wildfires over disagreements with Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

When Trump was presidentPuerto Rico was devastated by Hurricane Maria, in which 3,000 people died. His administration waited until the fall of 2020, just weeks before the presidential election, to release $13 billion in recovery aid for Puerto Rico. The federal government watchdog also found that Trump administration officials obstructed an investigation into aid delays.

Social media users and critics identified the differences between the vice presidential candidates– said Ohio State Senator JD Vance and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz during the debate.

The debate, moderated on October 1 by correspondents Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan, highlighted a variety of hot political topics, starting from the deepening crisis in the Middle East, abortion restrictions and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s acceptance of the 2020 election results.

Both Vance and Walz began the debate by seeming to indicate equal respect for one another, and as the debate wore on, it seemed that the opposing candidates agreed to disagree on key issues affecting American voters. Their civility was in stark contrast to that in the Sept. 10 presidential debate between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. She caught the attention of social media users calling the vice presidential debate “refreshing.” “Honestly, the VP debate so far is much better than the entire last presidential debate,” @litcapital said on X.

“Two people actually answering questions is refreshing and sad that this is not the norm.”

However, this doesn’t prevent critics from declaring certain shortcomings. Vance was called out for telling viewers his life story, including stories about his mother’s drug addiction, which he continuously brings up when talking about immigration. During this a part of the evening, the senator stated that as a baby he often suffered from hunger attributable to his mother’s addiction and blamed it on debt. One of X’s users claimed that his drug use was putting his family in debt. “Honestly, your mom was in debt because she was buying drugs instead of feeding you,” @zibaddiejad93 said.

Perhaps Vance’s biggest fault of the evening was his constant blaming of politics on the Kamala Harris administration. Many viewers, including actress Yvette Nicole Brown, criticized the vice presidential candidate for his lack of expertise. Because Harris is just not yet president, none of the policies mentioned during the debate were adopted during her administration. “Can someone please tell this smoky-eyed weirdo that @kamalaharris isn’t in administration (yet!)?!” she wrote.

Senator Dayna Polehanki also showed how her colleague refused to confess that Trump lost the 2020 election and praised Walz for not conceding.

Although critics identified that each nominees did quite well, Walz was hailed as the big winner of the night. MSNBC host Joy Ann Reid called Vance’s performance “nothing to remember,” but added that the former football coach and state governor had proven to be “dependable.”

Walz received major points for his approach to health care, gun control and abortion laws. He mentioned the story of Amber Thurman, a young black woman who lost her life in consequence of Georgia’s unsafe abortion laws. Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney representing her family, issued an announcement on their behalf. “The fight for justice for Amber is a fight for every woman’s right to make decisions about her own body and access the medical care she needs,” the statement reads.

“We will not stop until these dangerous laws are repealed and there are no more deaths. Until then, we must keep repeating her name: Amber Thurman!”

According to , his the results gave him a lift in approval polls. A preliminary poll by CNN and SSRS showed the Minnesota governor receiving a 23-point increase – from 14 to 37, in comparison with Vance’s 19-point increase.

The popular TikTok personality has been named as a person of interest in the death of a 69-year-old therapist whose body was found Saturday wrapped in a tarp on a highway near Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Terryon Ishmael Thomas, 20, also generally known as Prada, was arrested in Dallas on Tuesday after a transient manhunt. According to Louisiana Fox affiliate. He was seen driving a vehicle belonging to the victim, William Nicholas Abraham. Instead of stopping to call law enforcement, Thomas backed into a police automobile and fled on foot.

He was later captured on surveillance cameras from a nearby store. Details of his arrest in Texas haven’t been released.

Police consider Thomas was the last person to see Abraham alive. It has not been established whether or how they knew one another, and a possible motive stays unclear.

“It was a very physical and very brutal attack,” said Tangipahoa Sheriff Gerald Naklejka Volold television station WAFB. Abraham died of blunt force trauma.

The sticker says police are still attempting to piece together the details of the popular therapist’s death.

No weapons were found along the road where the body was left, and the sheriff said a search of Abraham’s home in East Baton Rouge Parish turned up no signs of foul play.

“Right now we have no idea where this came from,” Stick said. Police consider Abraham was killed Saturday night.

“I want to know who did it and I want to know why,” said the victim’s brother, Tommy Abraham. he told WBRZ.

“No one should take a life, only God. Nobody,” Tommy Abraham continued. “Only he can take a life, and if someone takes someone else’s life, you are a coward.”

Abraham was a well-known figure in Baton Rouge, where he hosted a local television show. Before becoming a therapist, he served as a Catholic priest in Mississippi and Milwaukee for 14 years.

According to his website, Abraham was a “pioneer” who also worked as a life coach and motivational speaker. He specialized in the treatment of addictions, anxiety and depression and worked with the LGBTQ community.

“He was kind, loving, gentle and honestly, not the type of person that something like this would happen to,” said Abraham’s lawyer, Jarret Ambeau. “I am completely devastated and completely surprised that something like this could happen to a man who I believe is so tender, so gentle and has such a serving heart.”

But Abraham’s past was shrouded in dark clouds. He was arrested in 2015 for allegedly inappropriately touching an 11-year-old boy during a therapy session, in line with East Baton Rouge Parish court records.

Abraham was never charged with this incident.

The boy’s identity is unknown, but when he remains to be alive, he can be the same age as Thomas. Ambeau, who represented William Abraham in the 2015 case, did he told reporters Thomas is just not the alleged victim in this case.

IN one of the last movies, Thomas, who has 4 million followers, declared: “I even have bipolar disorder… have you ever never seen anyone with bipolar disorder before? I desired to hide it, but I failed.

In one other video, Thomas chaotically shaves his head, leaving clumps of hair behind.

Last week he announced that he had just undergone a breakup and was seen applying smudged eyeliner after which ripping off his shirt.

“Life is a prison, get me out of here,” Thomas wrote in one other recent post.

Thomas will now appear before a judge in Dallas to find out whether he can be extradited to Louisiana to face charges of aggravated criminal damage to property, resisting officers and unauthorized use of a motorized vehicle.