Vice President JD Vance traveled to Damascus, Virginia on Monday, a step forward in fulfilling a campaign promise to visit areas affected by Hurricane Helene in late September.
The Monday visit marked Vance’s second trip to Damascus since the hurricane swept across the southeast on Sept. 27, destroying parts of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida and leaving more than 200 people dead.
“Vice President Vance visited with Damascus residents in October after the town was ravaged by Hurricane Helene,” a spokesperson for the vice president told Fox News Digital. “He pledged to be back, and now he’s fulfilling his promise. The first week of this administration has made it clear that President Trump and Vice President Vance keep their word.”
Vance’s trip comes just days after President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump and other politicians visited Asheville, Fletcher and Swannanoa, North Carolina, on Jan. 24, marking the now-president’s second trip to those areas since September.
Trump spoke in all three towns but allowed a group of locals who lost everything in Helene to share their own personal stories during his stop in Swannanoa. Some locals have taken issue with the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) handling of the disaster, saying it has too much red tape for those in need of immediate assistance to get the help they need, whether it be housing, money or both.
“I’ll also be signing an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA or maybe getting rid of FEMA,” Trump told reporters in North Carolina on Friday morning. “I think, frankly, FEMA is not good.”
