WATCH: Gov. Brian Kemp SLAMS Biden-Harris Admin For Leaving Out Relief For Rural Counties Following Hurricane Helene Devastation

Following the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) slammed the Biden-Harris administration for leaving dozens of rural counties off of the major disaster declaration. The Category 4 storm impacted communities across Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia, leading to over 200 confirmed fatalities.

During an interview, Gov. Kemp explained that he had to pressure the White House to add dozens of rural counties to the White House's disaster declaration to ensure Georgians could get the resources they need in their time of crisis. "When the first emergency declarations came down, there was only 11 counties in that. A lot of people were outraged, including me, because there was such devastation in up to 90 counties," Kemp explained to WRDW. "So we called the White House. We spoke to the president's chief of staff, the FEMA administrator, and said, look, you're sending the signal that you're not paying attention to some of these rural communities."

After making the call to the White House, federal authorities added an additional 30 counties to the disaster declaration. However, Gov. Kemp explained that upwards of 90 counties need to be listed to allow residents to apply for emergency assistance. "I absolutely think we will have a lot more counties added. We're at 41 right now, and I could see it going anywhere from 70 to 90," he said. "It was a massive storm, and we're dealing with things statewide; even the metro Atlanta area had record flooding. We had mudslides. We had to evacuate people below lakes and ponds up in the northeast part of the state, so we've been dealing with it."

Kemp's comments come after Vice President Kamala Harris visited the Peach State nearly a week after the storm made landfall. During her trip, the Democratic presidential candidate announced that those impacted could apply for $750 in emergency assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

"The federal relief and assistance that we have been providing has included FEMA providing $750 for folks who need immediate needs being met such as food, baby formula, and the like," the vice president said while reading from prepared remarks during a news conference. "You can apply now for anyone who is watching this that has been affected. There are FEMA personnel who are going door-to-door to interact personally with folks, especially those who do not have electricity. But also that aid, if you have electricity, can be applied for online, and I encourage people to do that."

In addition to providing some support for victims of the storm, Harris announced that the federal government would fully reimburse state governments for the costs associated with providing food, water, and shelter to impacted residents and the costs associated with debris removal. "The assessment of the damage is being done across the board, and of course, the highest priority is to locate and determine individuals, people who are in need and making sure that we are getting to them as quickly as possible," Harris said, as reported by The Telegraph. "There's a lot of work that's going to need to happen over the coming days, weeks, and months, and the coordination that we have dedicated ourselves to will be long-lasting to get families, residents, and neighborhoods back up and running."

WOW: Georgia Governor says White House is ignoring rural residents who were affected by Hurricane Helene pic.twitter.com/htDXRCuG1T

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) October 3, 2024