Biden received an aerial tour of the damage in Tallahassee, Florida, on Thursday where the hurricane made landfall as a Category 4 storm last week.
The president has approved federal disaster assistance for survivors in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.
There are tens of thousands of people without running water in North Carolina, which has seen some of the most severe effects of the storm particularly in the mountainous area of Asheville.
“I feel like I just survived the apocalypse,” Nicole Rojas, a Vilas, North Carolina, resident told the BBC.
Hundreds of roads remain closed, hampering efforts to send aid to hard-hit communities.
South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Virginia also recorded deaths from the storm.
An elderly couple died in bed when a tree fell on their home in South Carolina, their grandson told the Associated Press. He said they were found hugging one another.
North Carolina prisons on Wednesday relocated 800 inmates due to lack of power and running water, according to the state’s department of corrections. Over 2,000 prisoners were relocated from other prisons earlier this week.
Family members of prisoners told the Asheville Citizen-Times, external newspaper that they haven’t been able to contact their loved ones for more than a week.
Across the US south-east, over 933,000 customers remained without electricity on Thursday, according to Poweroutages.us.
More than 6,700 Army and Air National Guard members from 16 states are assisting with the on-the-ground response, according to the National Guard.
The president deployed 1,000 active-duty soldiers to help with the aid efforts.
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