President Donald Trump flew into Corpus Christi, Texas, on Tuesday with his cabinet where he received first hand briefing and updates on Tropical Storm Harvey Relief efforts. This is the first major national disaster for the White House and this President since assuming office.
Accompanying the President was his wife First Lady Melania Trump, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Dr. Ben Carson, Health & Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tom Price and Small Business Administrator Linda McMahon.
The President and members of his cabinet also visited Austin and the Department of Safety for another briefing and to assess the situation first hand.
The President and First Lady are met at the airport in Corpus Christi by Texas Governor Greg Abbot (wheelchair) on Friday, 29 August 2017. Credit: Reuters
Speaking in Corpus Christi near where Tropical Storm Harvey first came ashore last week, President Trump said he hoped the disaster relief effort in the wake of the storm would be a future model of how to respond to a catastrophe.
“We want to do it better than ever before. We want to be looked at 5 years, 10 years from now as this is the way to do it,” he said of the coordinated response between federal, state and local agencies.
He then added that the storm “was of epic proportion” and that nobody had “ever seen anything like this.”
First Lady Melania Trump also followed with her own official statement, “The effects of Hurricane Harvey will be felt in Texas, Louisiana, and other parts of the country for many months and years to come.” read the statement.
President Trump and FLOTUS Melania Trump during a briefing on Harvey Relief efforts with Gov. Greg Abbot (2nd L) on Tuesday, 29 August 2017. Credit: Reuters
In Austin where the President visited an Emergency Operations centre, he warned of a “costly proposition” of the cleanup that will be needed to rebuild the region.
“The sad thing is that this is long-term. Nobody’s ever seen anything this long. Nobody’s seen this kind of water,” said Trump.
“Probably there’s never been anything so expensive in our country’s history. There’s never been anything so historic in terms of damage and in terms of ferocity as what we’ve witnessed with Harvey.”
As he did on Monday, President Trump again pledged to work with Congress to secure disaster relief funding to help Texas with that long-term recovery.
The devastation caused by Tropical Storm Harvey in Texas will take long time to be reversed. Credit: AP/David J. Phillip
In order words, Trump’s visit to Texas was a calculated message to the country but mores to the elected officials that he is fully engaged in the disaster recovery efforts.
From the beginning of the storm, the President has been working hard behind the scenes with the Republican Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, ensuring that all responses across the state were coordinated.
“What I learned is that we can count on the President of the United States and his staff,” said Gov. Greg Abbott.
“The President and his Cabinet remained in constant contact with me and my staff and they all had one thing to say, ‘Texas, what do you need?’ ”
A crowd of almost 200 locals who had gathered to welcome President Trump wave to him outside the Firehouse in Corpus Christi where he received the briefing on Tuesday, 29 August 2017. Credit: Reuters
Gov. Abbott then added that President Trump had been engaged in preparations as much as 10 days before the storm hit, praising him for showing “character and compassion” throughout the recovery effort.”
“Recovery is a slow process but rest assured, we’re doing everything we can,” said FEMA Administrator Brock Long, at a roundtable briefing discussion with President Trump and local officials.
“All eyes are on Houston and so are mine. We’ve got a long time to go. We’re still in a life-saving, life-sustaining mission,” Mr. Long added.
Residents use boats to evacuate areas flooded by Tropical Storm Harvey in Houston, Texas on Monday, 28 August 2017. Credit: Agrees Latif
The government’s disaster relief agency, FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) has been closely coordinating with state and local officials from the moment the storm began.
The slow-moving storm which has led to mass evacuations has reportedly killed at least 16 – among them a local Police Sergeant who drowned on Sunday in his patrol car on his way to rescue others. The storm has also brought record-breaking rains and catastrophic flooding to Texas.
Up to 30,000 people are expected to seek emergency shelter from the flooding which has paralyzed Houston, the fourth largest city in the U.S. and one of the most populous.
Evacuees line up for food and other supplies at the George Brown Centre in Houston, Texas on Tuesday, 29 August 2017. Credit: AP
Vice President Mike Pence said in an interview with WOAI radio that more than 8,600 officials through FEMA were on the ground and that the agency had shipped more than 2.5 million meals and more than 2 million litres of water to the area.
Harvey had been downgraded to a tropical storm but was still doing damage, with forecasters saying Louisiana was in the path.
More bad news for Texas as Tropical Storm Harvey is predicted to blanket the state with heavy rainfall until through Friday. Credit: weather.com
The National Hurricane Center is forecasting an additional 6 to 12 inches of rain through Friday over parts of the upper Texas coast into southwestern Louisiana.
Harvey is expected to reach Louisiana early on Wednesday, exactly a day after the 12th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina hit the state in 2005, causing mass devastation and killed 1,800 people.
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