Soldiers with 875th Engineering Company, 505th Engineer Battalion and 630th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 113th Sustainment Brigade deliver water and food to West Buncombe Elementary School for aerial pickup on Oct. 1, 2024. (Denné Allen/U.S. Army)

Up to 1,000 soldiers from Fort Liberty, N.C., will deploy to help get food, water and critical aid to communities still reeling from Hurricane Helene, the Defense Department announced Wednesday.

The troops provide the extra personnel and logistics needed to reach some of the hardest hit areas as quickly as possible, said Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary. The soldiers are gathering now and will move into affected areas by Thursday morning, joining other service members already working hurricane relief efforts alongside the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“Their mission will include delivering support and commodities to impacted and isolated communities, assisting with supply point logistics at commodity staging locations, and removing debris from affected routes,” Ryder said.

Troops will arrive nearly one week after Hurricane Helene struck the U.S. coast near the Big Bend region of Florida on Sept. 26. The Category 4 storm left a path of devastation as it moved inland. At least 166 people have died because of the storm and roughly 1.2 million residents in North and South Carolina and Georgia still lack power, according to The Associated Press. Many also lack safe drinking water, working sewage systems or reliable cellphone and internet service.

Damage and debris along roads and highways have made accessing some towns difficult, particularly in western North Carolina where the roads weave through the mountains.

President Joe Biden is traveling Wednesday to North and South Carolina, and Vice President Kamala Harris will go to Georgia.

“We have to jump-start this recovery process,” Biden said Tuesday, estimating it will cost billions of dollars. “People are scared to death. This is urgent.”

The soldiers deploying are assigned to the Infantry Task Force of the XVIII Airborne Corps and come from the 82nd Airborne Division and other units at Fort Liberty, which was spared from the worst of Hurricane Helene. The base is about 260 miles east of Asheville, a city that sustained significant storm damage.

Soldiers with the Georgia Army National Guard prepare ice and water for delivery to civilians affected by Hurricane Helene in Augusta on Oct. 1, 2024. (Spc. Kemarvo Smith/U.S. Army National Guard )

First Sgt. Michelle Babot of the Georgia Army National Guard briefs a route clearance team in Augusta on Sept. 28, 2024. (Sgt. Thomas Norris/U.S. Army National Guard)

Georgia National Guard soldiers stage vehicles at a point of distribution in Augusta on Oct. 1, 2024. (Sgt. Thomas Norris/U.S. National Guard )

They join roughly 6,500 National Guard troops from a dozen states working on hurricane recovery across the southeast. Brig. Gen. Charles Morrison of the North Carolina Army National Guard will serve as commander of the active-duty troops as well as the Guard troops already assigned to him.

“These Guardsmen have been spearheading the response effort across the impacted region in support of their governors, providing critical lifesaving and life-sustaining support to the victims of this historic natural disaster,” Ryder said.

The Defense Department has also already provided Army and Navy helicopters and crews to move personnel and supplies where roads are not safe, search-and-rescue teams from the Air Force and high-wheeled Army vehicles and crews. The Army Corps of Engineers has sent temporary power teams, route clearance teams, water and wastewater management experts and bridge inspectors.

Meanwhile, some military installations are dealing with their own recovery efforts. The Army’s Fort Eisenhower and Moody Air Force Base, both in Georgia, will remain closed through Friday with only mission-essential personnel and residents allowed on base. Power has been restored at Fort Eisenhower but not at Moody.