DAMASCUS, Va. – Vice President JD Vance on Monday traveled to Damascus, Virginia, a town on the southwestern edge of the state that was hit hard by Hurricane Helene in September.

The visit was Vance’s second time to Damascus and his first official trip as vice president, coming just days after President Donald Trump traveled to western North Carolina on Jan. 24 to tour areas still struggling to recover after the hurricane.

“The local government’s working, the state government is working as hard as it can, the local communities and the nonprofits and the churches are working at breakneck speed, and yet you have the federal government out there — the biggest institution with the most money — that’s not doing its job. It just drives home how much better we can do,” Vance told Fox News Digital when asked about the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA’s) response to hurricane-damaged areas across the Southeast.

Vance met Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, State Sen. Todd Pillion, Damascus Mayor Katie Lamb, as well as local law enforcement officers and firefighters for a private round table discussion upon arrival at the Damascus Fire Department just before 1 p.m. Youngkin and Lamb described blown-up photos showing streets in downtown Damascus that were flooded over after Helene swept through the area on Sept. 27, causing a creek that runs through town to overflow.

Vice President JD Vance, left, with Gov. Glenn Youngkin, R-Va., right, speaks outside the Damascus Diner, on Monday, Jan. 27, 2025, in Damascus, Virginia, after receiving a briefing on recovery efforts from Hurricane Helene. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, Pool)

More than 200 people died as a result of Hurricane Helene across six states, including Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. Recovery is a massive and ongoing undertaking in many areas of the Appalachian region that were destroyed by historic flooding and heavy winds in late September, and many residents in these areas who lost their homes in the storm are still living in campers and tents four months later.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says only half of the debris recovery from Hurricane Helene is complete.