US President Donald Trump has defended the responses at both state and federal levels to the devastating flash flooding in Texas during his visit to the Hill Country region, where at least 120 lives were lost, including many children.
Following a roundtable discussion after touring Kerr County, the epicenter of the disaster, Mr. Trump commended both Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for their efforts, stating they both performed an “incredible job.”
The Trump administration, along with local and state officials, has faced increasing scrutiny over whether additional measures could have been implemented to safeguard and alert residents ahead of the flooding, which struck rapidly during the early hours of July 4, coinciding with the US Independence Day holiday.
Mr. Trump expressed frustration when a reporter mentioned that some families affected by the floods had voiced disappointment regarding the timing of the warnings.
Critics have raised concerns about whether the administration’s budget cuts to the National Weather Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, responsible for coordinating the US government’s disaster response, may have worsened the situation.
Trump officials have stated that the cuts did not hinder the NWS’s capacity to forecast storms, even with some vacancies in local offices.
However, the president has mostly avoided addressing inquiries on his plans to reduce or eliminate FEMA and delegate many of its essential functions to state and local governments.
“I’ll tell you some other time,” Mr. Trump said when approached by a reporter about FEMA.
Prior to the recent flooding, Kerr County opted not to implement an early-warning system after failing to secure state funding for the expense.
The Texas state legislature is set to convene a special session later this month to investigate the flooding and allocate disaster relief funds.
Mr. Abbott has dismissed inquiries regarding accountability, labeling such questions as the “word choice of losers.”
Dozens still unaccounted for
Search crews continue to sift through the muddy debris in parts of the Hill Country in central Texas, searching for the many individuals still reported missing, with no survivors located since the day of the floods.
Intense rainfall propelled a massive surge of water down the Guadalupe River in the early hours of July 4, resulting in the deadliest disaster during the Republican president’s nearly six-month tenure.
Search teams in hard hats methodically navigated the damaged banks of the river, marking destruction and examining rubble.
Donald Trump and Texas Governor Greg Abbott (L) meet with local officials and first responders near the Guadalupe River.
Upon his arrival in Kerr County in the early afternoon, Mr. Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and Mr. Abbott traveled to a site near the river, where the president received an update from first responders amidst the debris left by the floods.
The county is situated in an area referred to as “flash flood alley,” known for having some of the nation’s most deadly floods.
Over a foot of rain fell within an hour on July 4.
Flood gauges indicated that the river’s level surged from approximately 30 cm to 10.4 m in just a few hours, overflowing its banks and sweeping away trees and structures in its wake.
Kerr County officials report that over 160 individuals remain unaccounted for, although experts suggest that the count of missing persons after disasters is often exaggerated.
The deceased in the county include 67 adults and at least 36 children, many of whom were campers at the nearly century-old Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian summer camp situated on the river’s banks.
