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 emergency action on Tuesday aimed to reduce the burden on housing providers in crisis due to an influx of unpaid rent and delayed eviction cases.

ERAP is a government program that provides low-income residents with subsidized housing. People earning less than 40% of the area median income receive government assistance for overdue rent, late fees, and court costs for households facing evictions, according to the District of Columbia Department of Human Services.

Tweaks made to the program in 2022 prohibited landlords from evicting tenants who held unpaid rent if they had pending applications for ERAP funds and placed heavy restrictions on judges’ ability to weigh in on eviction appeals from landlords.

Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said this week that, under the ERAP policies, housing providers have run into a wall of financial challenges.

“What we are seeing is, on an aggregate basis, these affordable housing providers are carrying tens of millions of dollars in uncollected rent, and that is not sustainable,” Mendelson said.

With landlords losing millions of dollars in unpaid rent, the council’s emergency legislation reversed eviction policies, empowered courts to process eviction proceedings even if a tenant had a pending ERAP application, and allocated $80 million in Housing Production Trust Fund money as bridge loans to prevent subsidized affordable housing providers from declaring bankruptcy.

The council’s legislative action is a temporary measure. However, the mayor’s office is seeking permanent actions to remedy the housing fiasco.

“Comprehensive, permanent legislation and continued robust investment in the system will be needed to protect our investments and progress,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said Tuesday evening.

The district’s affordable housing market is facing a “looming crisis,” according to a June report published by the Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington. The report found that ERAP policies had put affordable housing providers “on the verge of financial insolvency.”

Earlier this spring, Laura Green Zeilinger, the director of the D.C. Department of Human Services, the agency that oversees ERAP, worried that the program was not a sustainable solution to the housing affordability crisis. She warned that the injection of federal funds into ERAP during the pandemic “created an expectation that [DHS] cannot meet.”

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“ERAP is never going to have a budget of $300 million, and we need to be honest with residents that they need to do everything they can to pay their rent,” Zeilinger said.

The ERAP announced this year that due to its funds being “exhausted,” it is closing the application portal for new beneficiaries for fiscal 2025.

AUSTIN, Texas — Beginning in the spring of 2025, Delta Air Lines will launch five new nonstop routes from Austin, Austin-Bergstrom International Airport announced Monday.

The first service from the capital of Texas will be to Panama City starting on March 9. Flights to Indianapolis and Memphis will launch on May 7, while trips to San Francisco and Tampa will begin June 8. 

“Delta’s decision to expand its service in Austin is a testament to our city’s thriving economy and vibrant community,” said T.C. Broadnax, Austin city manager. “These five new flights will not only enhance connectivity for our residents and businesses but also contribute to Austin’s reputation as a premiere destination for travel and commerce. We are thrilled to welcome Delta’s continued investment in Austin.”

The flights will run once a day, every day of the week. This expansion positions Delta to have the second-largest market share at the Central Texas airport based on daily departing flights.

The Delta Connection carrier SkyWest’s fleet of Embraer 175s will serve the Panama City, Indianapolis and Memphis routes, while the San Francisco and Tampa routes will be on Delta’s Airbus A220-300 aircraft.

“We’re incredibly excited to join Delta in celebrating these new routes,” said Ghizlane Badawi, AUS CEO. “Delta has been making significant investments to connect Austin and Central Texas with more choices, greater convenience, and enhanced connectivity. They’re a valued airport and community partner and we look forward to supporting their continued growth at AUS.”

American Airlines previously served the Indianapolis, Memphis and Tampa routes before it cut more than 30 routes from Austin over the past year. Now, with the new nonstop additions, Delta will be the only airline offering direct service to Memphis.

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport has been a hot spot for passenger traffic recently. Between January and July this year, Delta flew more than 1.8 million passengers to and from the capital city, a 23.5% increase from last year. 

“Delta is continuing to build its presence in Austin with new routes to more business and leisure destinations across the U.S.” said Joe Esposito, Delta’s S.V.P. – Network Planning. “With 55 peak-day departures planned for Summer 2025, Delta is reaffirming its commitment to Austin, giving our customers even more opportunities to connect to our global network.”