Marine One, carrying President Biden, flies over the flood-hit city of Asheville. Photo: Mandel NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
On the day that he got an aerial tour of the damage in Western North Carolina, President Biden approved the deployment of 1,000 active-duty soldiers to reinforce the North Carolina National Guard, the White House said in a memo.
Why it matters: These soldiers will speed up the delivery of emergency supplies like food, water and medicine to isolated communities throughout western North Carolina.
Zoom in: Already more than 700 National Guard members from North Carolina are in the mountains. The Department of Defense has also provided aircraft, vehicles and engineers to aid FEMA's response.
FEMA itself also has 1,200 personnel members on the ground in North Carolina, according to the White House.
Still, though, water is scarce throughout the region, forcing residents to line up for hours for water, as repair work on water systems, like Asheville's, continues, The Washington Post reported.
And search-and-rescue missions remain ongoing as officials hope to track down those still unaccounted for in the wake of Hurricane Helene — especially in the small towns throughout the mountain that have lost road access.
