JD Vance has been forced to cancel two campaign events in Georgia due to the threat posed by Hurricane Helene, in the latest instance of Donald Trump’s presidential bid being affected by extreme weather worsened by a climate crisis that both Trump and Vance have routinely mocked. Vance, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, scrapped plans to make a speech in Macon, Georgia, and then hold a rally in Flowery Branch, Georgia, on Thursday due to the hurricane, which has surged across the Gulf of Mexico and hit Florida’s west coast as a category 4 storm. Hurricane Helene has threatened a of as much as 20ft along Florida’s Gulf coast, with flooding and tornadoes expected in Georgia as it sweeps inland.
“Say a prayer for our friends in Florida and Georgia who are bracing for what seems to be a very bad storm,” Vance posted on X on Thursday. The Trump campaign said that Vance’s events would be rearranged “as soon as possible”, but climate campaigners claimed the Ohio senator had been hit in ironic fashion by the consequences of global heating. Vance has said he is “skeptical of the idea that climate change is caused purely by man” and called efforts by Joe Biden to address it a “green scam”.
Not only is the burning of fossil fuels and other human activity the cause of , scientists say it is also causing hurricanes like Helene to become fiercer and . The average intensification rate of hurricanes today is nearly 30% greater than it was before the 1990s due .
