LISTEN: Former president and now candidate Donald Trump visited Valdosta on Monday to see the damage done by Hurricane Helene and talk about relief efforts. GPB’s Sarah Kallis reports.
VALDOSTA, Ga. — Former president and now candidate Donald Trump visited Valdosta on Monday to see the damage done by Hurricane Helene and talk about relief efforts.
Trump spoke in front of a furniture store, Chez What, that was ravaged by the storm's winds. An entire wall of the building was torn off and bricks littered the ground around it.
Trump said he delivered gasoline, water and food to Valdosta to help with relief efforts from Hurricane Helene.
“We will be back; we will continue to help until you’re bigger ... better and stronger than before," he said, "but you can’t ever discount the fact that people have been lost."
Patrick Watson, the owner of Chez What said that he appreciated Trump's visit, and is reeling from the damage.
We had trees through our home last year and we were displaced for — till the end of 2023 from Idalia," Watson said. "And then this comes a year later and it's like: 'Back to square one again,' over and over again."
Over the weekend, Gov. Brian Kemp spoke with President Joe Biden, who let him know FEMA was sending food, water, gasoline and other supplies to areas hit hard by the storm. Trump falsely claimed that Kemp and the White House had not spoken.
Vice President Kamala Harris said that she also spoke to Kemp, and that she would be on the ground to surveil damage "as soon as possible" at an address at FEMA headquarters.
