ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Joe Biden got a firsthand look Sunday at the devastation inflicted on Florida’s Gulf Coast by Hurricane Milton as he presses Congress to approve additional emergency disaster funding. Vice President Kamala Harris was spending a second day in North Carolina, hard-hit by Hurricane Helene, to worship with Black churchgoers and hold a campaign rally.

Biden arrived in Tampa and flew by helicopter to St. Pete Beach, surveying the wreckage left behind by Milton, including the roof of Tropicana Field that was shorn off by the powerful storm’s winds. Later, as the president’s motorcade drove along the highway, piles of debris, tattered billboards, toppled fences, fallen trees and closed gas stations were seen. It passed through a neighborhood where almost every home had water damage and heaps of belongings were on the curb.

WATCH: Biden and Harris discuss federal response after Helene and Milton strike U.S.

The visit gave Biden another chance to press House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., for congressional approval of more aid money before the Nov. 5 election. Johnson said Sunday that lawmakers will deal with the issue after the election because of the amount of time it takes to come up with an estimate. He said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that his “guesstimate” is that $100 billion will be needed.

“We’ll provide the additional resources,” Johnson said.

In Florida, Biden was set to announce $612 million for six Department of Energy projects in areas affected by the hurricanes to improve the resilience of the region’s electric grid, the White House said. The funding includes $94 million for two projects in Florida: $47 million for Gainesville Regional Utilities and $47 million for Switched Source to partner with Florida Power and Light.

Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, visited Raleigh on Saturday to meet with Black elected and religious leaders and help volunteers package personal care items for delivery to victims of Helene in the western part of the state.

She was spending Sunday in Greenville, with plans to speak during a church service as part of her campaign’s “Souls to the Polls” effort to help turn out Black churchgoers before Election Day. She was also scheduled to hold a rally to talk about her economic plans and highlight Thursday’s start of early voting in the state, her campaign said.

Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will spend the coming week campaigning in the competitive states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina, according to a Harris campaign official who was not authorized to publicly discuss details not yet made public and spoke on condition of anonymity.

With less than four weeks to go before Election Day, the hurricanes have added another dimension to the closely contested presidential race.

READ MORE: In an already unpredictable year, back-to-back hurricanes reshape 2024 presidential campaign

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has said the Biden administration’s storm response had been lacking, particularly in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene. Biden and Harris have hammered Trump for promoting falsehoods about the federal response.

Trump made a series of false claims after Helene struck in late September, including incorrectly saying that the federal government is intentionally withholding aid to Republican disaster victims. He also falsely claimed the Federal Emergency Management Agency had run out of money because all of it had gone to programs for immigrants in the country illegally.

Biden said Trump was “not singularly” to blame for the spread of false claims in recent weeks but that he has the “biggest mouth.”

The president is pressing for swift action by Congress to make sure the Small Business Administration and FEMA have the money they need to get through hurricane season, which ends Nov. 30 in the Atlantic. He said Friday that Milton alone had caused an estimated $50 billion in damages.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said last week that FEMA will be able to meet “immediate needs” caused by the two storms. But he warned in the aftermath of Helene that the agency does not have enough funding to make it through the hurricane season.

READ MORE: FEMA chief calls false claims about government’s Helene response ‘truly dangerous’

But Johnson has pushed back, saying the agencies have enough money for the time being and that lawmakers will address the funding issue during the lame-duck session after the election.

Also percolating in the background are tensions between Harris and Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla. As Helene barreled toward Florida, the two traded accusations that the other was trying to politicize the federal storm response.

Harris’ office last week suggested that DeSantis was dodging her phone calls. DeSantis responded that he was unaware she had called and he grumbled that she hadn’t been involved in the federal government’s response before she became the Democratic nominee.

Biden said he hoped to see DeSantis on Sunday, if the governor’s schedule permitted. DeSantis was not among the officials who greeted Biden in Tampa or joined his briefing in St. Pete Beach.

Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida as a Category 3 storm on Wednesday evening. At least 10 people were killed and hundreds of thousands of residents remain without power.

Officials say the toll could have been worse if not for widespread evacuations. The still-fresh devastation wrought by Helene just two weeks earlier probably helped compel many people to flee.

Boak reported from Raleigh, North Carolina.

VALRICO, Florida — As the car pulled up, the few volunteers of Creekside Church of Christ moved quickly in the burning Florida sun, pulling water, hamburger meat and cookies out of the trunk and into the shade of three tents.

They laid out snacks, a pot of spaghetti and prepped the meat for their grill for their neighbors now using the parking lot as a temporary home.

A volunteer works the grill in front of Creekside Church. Members of the church worked together throughout the day to provide food and drinks for anyone who might need it.

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Three days before, Hurricane Milton hit the town of Valrico, Lithia and other communities on the west coast of Florida, bringing with it damaging winds and widespread power outages.

After the immediate threat of Milton subsided, another emerged: Major flooding from a nearby waterway turned neighborhoods into rivers, forcing dozens to evacuate their homes. Some reported water reaching up to their chest and needing to evacuate by kayak.

That’s why members of Creekside, just a mile away from one disastrous scene of flooding, gathered Saturday to provide food and drinks to their neighbors, like Shauna Thomas, whose homes are still inundated with water.

“We want to help out,” church elder Robert Clouse said simply of the effort. “I’m concerned about these people now.”

“I don’t think we were prepared for this,” Robert Clouse said of both Milton’s destruction and the subsequent flooding in town. Despite not having power, the church will hold its service this Sunday. Clouse said the service should be “memorable.”

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Thomas and some of her neighbors have been sleeping in their cars in the church parking lot since she managed to escape her home earlier this week.

“It came in so fast and so hard that there was nothing that any of us could do. We already knew it was coming, so we got the basics that we could out. But it was just too fast,” she said.

She grabbed a suitcase of clothes and her dog, Bailey, as flood waters quickly took over her Rose Street home.

Thomas’ low-lying street is just one of several in Hillsborough County flooded by the Alafia River. The waterway crested at 24.34 feet on Friday — reaching a major flood stage, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Other residents NPR spoke to said the area has never flooded this bad before. Hillsborough County emergency crews rescued more than 500 residents and 100 pets in the flooding aftermath.

Flood waters inundated several areas of Hillsborough County, including Paul Sanders Park in Brandon, Fla.

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By Saturday afternoon, some water had receded, but emergency crews and residents still relied on kayaks and boats just to enter the flood zones. NOAA forecasts flooding from the Alafia River to continue in the major or moderate flood stage through early next week.

Thomas is not confident about what remains of her house she’s lived in for two years.

“There’s no home,” she said, tearing up. “The guy that lives behind me lives in a house that’s between nine and 12 feet high, and he had two feet of water in his house. Mine’s lower than that. Mine only sits three feet above ground.”

She gave effusive thanks to the church for providing much-needed resources.

“They brought us food. They brought water. They brought us everything that they possibly could,” Thomas said.

She found that others in the community have shown up, too. One business loaned her a grill to use and another gave her space to park her car on higher ground when Milton first hit.

“It’s a strong community, and we’ll manage to get through one way or another. Now it’s just a matter of praying,” she said. “That’s all we can do.”

In a flooded Valrico neighborhood, a man waits outside of a home after paddling two others, who entered through the window, up to it.

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Florida will give out millions of gallons of free gas after the Sunshine State was walloped by Hurricane Milton, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Saturday.

The fuel was already being distributed at three sites, said the governor, who added more spots would be opening up, including at the Port of Tampa later Saturday, Politico reported.

The news comes after locals have been lining up for fuel and DeSantis has faced criticism over shortages after Florida was hit by two storms in as many weeks — the first, Hurricane Helene, making landfall on Sept. 26.

Residents in need could get up to 10 free gallons of fuel from the designated distribution centers that have already been set up in Plant City, Bradenton and St. Petersburg, De Santis said. Additional sites were slated for Tampa, Sarasota and a third potentially in Pinellas County, the news site reported.

Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said the handout was meant for those “financially struggling” and said people who could afford gas should continue to go to gas stations, as it would be a faster option.

Almost one third of Florida’s gas stations were out of fuel by Friday afternoon, the outlet reported, citing fuel tracking site GasBuddy.

State troopers were being used to help escort tanker trucks in order to distribute gas and dozens of distribution sites have been established in 14 counties to help get meals, water, ice and tarps out to locals.

Guthrie said he expected the feds to approve several programs meant to help locals with new housing or with the rehab of their current housing.

The governor told the media at a fuel depot set up in Plant City: “We just want people to be able to get what they need.”

Category 5 Milton hit the Gulf Coast of the state Wednesday and was accompanied by dozens tornadoes, torrential downpours and high-speed winds — all of which have contributed to power outages for more than 4 million people and at least 17 deaths.

More than 1.5 million people still haven’t gotten power back as of noon Saturday, according to state reports.