Vice President-elect JD Vance on Friday surveyed damage from Hurricane Helene and talked to first responders in western North Carolina in one of his first public appearances since the November election.
The hurricane struck in late September and caused at least $53 billion in damage in North Carolina, according to a state government estimate. More than 100 North Carolina residents died from the storm, which the state estimates damaged over 120,000 homes, at least 6,000 miles (9,700 kilometers) of roads and over 160 sewer and water systems.
The incoming vice president and his wife, Usha, visited the Fairview Volunteer Fire Department, where he learned that the building flooded with 4 to 6 inches of water and that roughly a dozen people got walking pneumonia as they responded to the hurricane's destruction. Power outages meant that some first responders could not talk with their own families for several days.
