Storm chaos sparks election frenzy in the US with Trump at centre

The storm that has killed over 100 people and triggered devastating floods across the US southeast has turned into a political storm, with Donald Trump rushing to the impact zone while the White House pushes back against criticism of its emergency response.

With the death toll rising and hundreds of people still unaccounted for, rescuers searched for survivors across Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, where torrential rains brought by Hurricane Helene brought widespread havoc.

Georgia and North Carolina were epicentres of the destruction — and are among the key swing states where the US election will be decided in just five weeks' time.

At least 108 people were killed by the storm and associated flooding — 39 in North Carolina, 25 in South Carolina, 25 in Georgia, 14 in Florida, four in Tennessee, and one in Virginia, according to tallies from local authorities compiled by AFP.

That total was expected to rise, authorities warned, with cell phone service knocked out across much of the region and up to 600 people still unaccounted for.

"Being denied help"

Trump arrived in Valdosta, Georgia, vowing to "bring lots of relief material, including fuel, equipment, water, and other things" to those in need.

He claimed his Republican Party supporters were being denied help.

"The federal government is not being responsive," he told reporters. "The vice president, she's out someplace, campaigning, looking for money," he said, referring to his election rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.

"We're not talking about politics now," he said later.

Democrat Harris cancelled campaign events to return to Washington for a briefing on the federal response, and will visit the region after the first wave of emergency operations.

President Joe Biden pointedly said that he would also not visit immediately, saying "it'd be disruptive."

The White House rejected criticism by Trump that Biden and Harris did not respond to the disaster quickly enough.

Harris was on a campaign trip in California over the weekend, while Biden was at his beach house in Delaware and returned to the White House on Sunday afternoon.

Trump accused Biden of "sleeping" instead of dealing with the storm damage.

Drowned in their homes

On Monday, US homeland security chief Liz Sherwood-Randall raised the worst-case scenario, telling reporters: "It looks like there could be as many as 600 lost lives... We know there are 600 who are either lost or unaccounted for."

The sheriff's office in Pinellas County, Florida, published a grim litany of the nine lives lost there so far, almost all of whose bodies were found in their homes.

Nearly all appeared to have drowned, it said, describing some found still lying in several inches of water, while others were buried under debris.

Residents face power cuts, supply shortages, blocked roads and broken communication lines in often mountainous terrain, with Georgia Governor Brian Kemp describing the storm as a "250-mile wide tornado."

Around two million households and businesses remained without power on Monday, according to tracker poweroutage.us.

In Valdosta, Trump said he was asking SpaceX chief Elon Musk to get his satellite internet service Starlink into the area.

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said Monday that hundreds of roads had been destroyed and many communities "wiped off the map."

"This is an unprecedented storm," he told reporters.

"The emotional and physical toll here is indescribable."