This story was updated on Wednesday, Oct. 2 at 1:54 p.m.

In Augusta, Georgia, a line wrapped around a massive shopping center, past the shuttered Waffle House and at least a half mile down the road to get water Tuesday.

At 11 a.m. it still hadn’t moved. Kristie Nelson arrived with her daughter three hours earlier. It was a muggy morning for October but they had their windows down and the car turned off because gas is a precious commodity too.

“It’s been rough,” said Nelson, who still hasn’t gotten a firm date from the power company for her electricity to be restored. “I’m just dying for a hot shower.”

The city — along with Valdosta — was one of the hardest-hit in Georgia by Hurricane Helene on Friday. Vice President Kamala Harris will arrive there Wednesday afternoon to survey the damage, meet with local officials and provide updates on federal actions being taken to support recovery efforts.

President Joe Biden will visit Georgia and Florida on Thursday to tour impacted areas and meet with affected communities. Former President Donald Trump was in Valdosta on Monday.

Augusta and Richmond County have five centers for water set up for its more than 200,000 people. The city hasn’t provided specifics on the durations of outages for both water and power.

Local resident Sherry Brown was converting power from the alternator of her car to keep her refrigerator running and taking “bird baths” with water she collected in coolers. In another part of the city, people waited in line for more than three hours to try to get water from one of five water centers.

All around the city, trees are snapped in half and power poles are leaning. Traffic lights are out — and some are just gone from the winds that hit in the dark early Friday morning from Hurricane Helene.

“It’s miserable here,” said David Reese who was probably looking at spending his entire day in a line for water, then for gas. “But I’m still feeling blessed. I’ve heard it’s a lot worse other places.”

Some 350,000 people are still without power in Georgia as of Wednesday afternoon, according to poweroutage.us. The storm killed at least 166 people across six states, including 25 in Georgia.

President Joe Biden, who is set to survey the devastation in North and South Carolina Wednesday, estimated the recovery could cost billions.

“We have to jump start this recovery process,” he said Tuesday. “People are scared to death. This is urgent.”

Vice President Harris will make remarks about the recovery efforts from Augusta at 4 p.m. Wednesday.

WABE’s Patrick Saunders contributed to this report.

The roof of a home in Augusta, Georgia, was crushed by fallen trees after Hurricane Helene caused widespread destruction, video from October 1 shows.

X user @j_wieberdink said she filmed this video of her husband’s home in Augusta and said “thousands of homes look like this.”

“Five days later, we don’t have power. Power lines down. The roads that have been cleared were cleared by citizens with chainsaws … our power grid has been destroyed by this storm,” she wrote in a caption on the post. Credit: @j_wieberdink via Storyful

Video transcript

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AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Georgia to tour the damage Hurricane Helene left across the Peach State.

The vice president will be in Augusta on Wednesday, where she will be briefed on recovery efforts.

Harris will also give updates on federal actions that are being taken to support emergency response and recovery efforts in Georgia and several other states.

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On Monday, Harris visited Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters where she received a follow-up briefing on the ongoing impacts of Hurricane Helene and thanked federal personnel and first responders for their work to support impacted communities.

During her remarks, she made it clear that the Biden-Harris administration “will continue to do everything we can to help you recover and to help you rebuild – no matter how long it takes.”

President Joe Biden, meanwhile, will visit storm-hit areas of North Carolina on Wednesday. He’ll “engage with first responders and state and local officials in South Carolina en route to North Carolina.”

Early Friday, the Category 1 storm hit Augusta, knocking out power to most of the city, toppling trees onto homes, killing nearly 25 people across the CSRA and leading to a more than two-day shutdown of Augusta’s water system.

Harris’ visit will come just a day after President Joe Biden approved a major disaster declaration for Richmond, Columbia and Jefferson counties.

The White House said Harris has spoken with Georgia leaders, including Gov. Brian Kemp and Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, ahead of her planned visit to the state.

The Augusta visit comes after ones Monday by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.

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