(Bloomberg) -- Vice President Kamala Harris is ending her West coast campaign trip a few hours earlier than planned to return to Washington for an emergency response meeting after Hurricane Helene ripped through the Southeast.
Harris will visit the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Washington after flying back from Las Vegas on Monday morning, according to a White House official.
She earlier received a briefing from FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell about the federal response to the storm, which has killed at least 84 people, destroyed homes and left millions without power in states including Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee and Virginia.
Harris has been out west for several days on a trip that included a stop at the US-Mexico border in Arizona, where she vowed to tighten border security. She also attended fundraisers in San Francisco and Los Angeles and held a rally in Las Vegas.
Read: Helene Has the US South Facing Another Deadly Flooding Day
With the toll from the storm still rising, Harris spoke with North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper about rescue and recovery efforts in the state, a key battleground in the November election.
Officials said she offered the administration’s commitment to providing all necessary federal resources amid ongoing flooding and devastation. She also reached out to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, though it wasn’t clear if the leaders spoke.
During a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania on Sunday, former President Donald Trump accused President Joe Biden of “sleeping” at his house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, as the storm unfolded.
Read: Hurricane Helene Halts Poultry Plants, Damages Pecan Trees
Biden and Harris both said they would be visiting impacted communities when appropriate and when their presence wouldn’t disrupt emergency response operations. Trump plans to visit Valdosta, Georgia on Monday to view some of the damage firsthand, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
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