US President Joe Biden says he is “angry” at Donald Trump’s “lying” about the federal government’s response to catastrophic Hurricane Helene, which smashed half a dozen states.

An estimated 600 people are still missing and the death toll as climbed towards 100 as the south-eastern US begins a huge clean-up and recovery from the weekend’s storms.

Hurricane Helene knocked out power for millions, destroyed roads and bridges and caused dramatic flooding from Florida to Virginia.

Its winds, rain and storm surge killed at least 90 people in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Virginia, according to a Reuters tally of state and local officials.

Officials feared more bodies are yet to be found.

Trump was in Georgia on Monday (local time), speaking in front of a furniture store in Valdosta that was badly damaged in the storm, when he said that “the federal government is not being very responsive”.

Trump claimed Georgia’s Republican governor was “having a hard time getting the President on the phone” as he sought help in the aftermath of the hurricane.

That was despite the Governor Brian Kemp having already stated that he had spoken to Biden and had been offered anything he needed for the clean-up and recovery.

Kemp and Biden confirmed the two spoke on Sunday.

Biden was visibly annoyed when media asked about Trump’s comments.

“He’s lying and the governor told him he was lying. The governor told him he’s lying,” he said.

“I’ve spoken to the governor, spent time with him, and he told him he’s lying.”

Biden said: “I get so angry about it.”

‘“I don’t care about what he says about me, but I care what he communicates to the people that are in need.

“He implies that we’re not doing everything possible. We are.”

Biden plans to travel to storm-ravaged North Carolina to view the toll from Hurricane Helene as residents face a “post-apocalyptic” landscape with hundreds of people still missing.

Biden said he would go on Wednesday (US time) after a briefing with state governor Roy Cooper and Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell.

Biden will participate in a local briefing and an aerial tour of the hard-hit town of Asheville, he later said on social media platform X. He said he also plans to travel to Georgia and Florida as soon as possible.

A Trump spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

David Hester inspects damage to his house after Hurricane Helene in Florida. Photo: Getty

Officials reported more than 100 deaths across a half-dozen states due to Helene. It was a major hurricane when it slammed into Florida’s Big Bend region late on Thursday before cutting a destructive path through Georgia and into the Carolinas.

Officials said the death toll was likely to rise even as they clung to hope that emergency responders would find most of those unaccounted for as they reached more locations and as emergency mobile telecommunications services came online.

As many as 600 people remained unaccounted for, US Homeland Security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall said at the White House.

Throughout North Carolina, 300 roads were closed, more than 7000 people had registered for US Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance, and the National Guard was flying 1000 tonnes of food and water to remote areas by plane and helicopter, officials said.

People were stranded without running water and 1.8 million homes and businesses remained without power on Monday, according to the website Poweroutage.us.

Kemp said at least 25 people in his state had died, including a firefighter responding to emergency calls during the storm and a mother and her one-month-old twins who were killed by a falling tree.

South Carolina reported at least 29 dead. CNN put the national death toll at 128, citing state and local officials.

Lake Lure in North Carolina was covered with floating debris from homes and businesses washed away by mountain streams that surround the lake, a video posted on X by Charlotte City Councilman Tariq Bokhari showed.

“It’s hard to describe, never seen anything like this, post-apocalyptic,” Bokhari wrote.

“It’s so overwhelming. You don’t even know how to fathom what recovery looks like, let alone where to start.”

Cooper flew over the area to view the damage and said “significant resources” would be needed to repair it.

Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris cut short a campaign trip in Nevada on Monday for briefings in Washington on the hurricane response. She would visit the region when doing so wouldn’t impede response efforts, a White House official said.

-with AAP