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Trump to visit hard-hit county

Trump to visit hard-hit county

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A week after catastrophic floods tore across the Texas Hill Country, authorities and volunteers on the ground Friday searched for over 160 missing people as residents in hard-hit areas mourned the dead and President Donald Trump was expected to visit the region.

At least 120 people have been recovered since heavy rainfall overwhelmed the Guadalupe River and flowed through homes and summer camps in the early morning hours of July 4. Ninety-six of those killed were in the hardest-hit county in central Texas, Kerr County, where the toll includes at least 36 children.

State officials vowed to continue searching for the many still missing but have acknowledged the dwindling chances of finding survivors alive a week after the disaster. The last time rescue teams made a “live rescue” was on the day the flood broke out, local officials said.

The president and first lady Melania Trump are set to arrive in Kerr County and meet with families of the victims and local officials, as questions linger over the little warnings issued ahead of the deadly floods.

Aboard Air Force One, Trump left Washington Friday morning en route to Texas, where he plans to meet with family members of flood victims, first responders and local officials.

“It’s a horrible thing,” Trump told reporters before Air Force One lifted off around 10:20 a.m. EDT. “Nobody can even believe it, such a thing. That much water that fast – without a dam break. You’d think a dam would have break for it to happen. A terrible thing.

“We’re going to be there with some of the great families and others, the (Texas) governor. Everybody’s going to be there.”

– Joey Garrison

The Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country has received more than $30 million in donations through the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund, organizers announced Friday.

Texas Rep. Chip Roy thanked those who’ve donated to the fund and said he expects the donation totals to grow in the coming days as recovery operations continue across the region. He urged more people to donate to the relief fund, citing a challenging road to recovery.

“People are all focused on this right now, but this is going to be happening in two weeks, in a month, in six months, in a year,” he said. “We need this to continue … keep the dollars flowing.”

Ahead of Trump’s Friday visit to Texas, the White House’s budget chief told reporters the Federal Emergency Management Agency has the funding to assist in flood recovery efforts even as the Trump administration has talked about eliminating FEMA.

Russ Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said FEMA has about $13 billion in its reserves to pay for necessary expenses in Texas.

“The president has said to Texas, anything it needs it will get,” Vought said, adding that, “We also want FEMA to be reformed. We want FEMA to work well … The president is going to continue to be asking tough questions of all of his agencies.”

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday continued her call for FEMA to be eliminated in its current form. Her push comes as FEMA has deployed specialists and distributed supplies to the flooded areas in Texas.

“Federal emergency management should be state and locally led, rather than how it has operated for decades,” Noem said.

“It has been slow to respond at the federal level. It’s even been slower to get the resources to Americans in crisis, and that is why this entire agency needs to be eliminated as it exists today, and remade into a responsive agency.”

– Joey Garrison

Nearly a decade before disastrous floods ravaged the Texas Hill Country, the state’s Division of Emergency Management denied requests from Kerr County for a $1 million grant to improve its flood warning system, records show.

In 2017, Kerr County requested the funds to build a flood warning system that would have upgraded 20 water gauge systems, added new water level sensors and posts, and created software and a website to distribute the information to the public in real-time.

The Texas Division of Emergency Management denied Kerr County’s initial application, meeting minutes show. Kerr County applied again the following year, in 2018, when more federal funding became available after Hurricane Harvey. But meeting minutes indicate that Texas’ emergency authority again did not approve it.

The Division of Emergency Management did not answer USA TODAY’s specific questions about why the county’s applications were rejected.

– Kenny Jacoby

Kerr County officials asked residents to avoid large debris piles until they’ve been searched thoroughly by crews scouring for flood victims.

“We are still looking for victims. If a pile is large enough to need heavy equipment to clean … have the city send a search team to check the pile first,” read a statement on the flood taskforce website. “This applies to big tangles where a person could be. Smaller piles are fine to be cleaned up.”

This week search crews have shifted their focus to untangling towering mounds of wreckage along the Guadalupe River and throughout Kerr County, where at least 96 people have been killed.

A director of a Texas summer camp for girls who was known as the “heart and soul” of the program. Two grade-school age sisters found together after being swept away. A 23-year-old Texas police officer celebrating the Fourth of July with his family.

These are some of the more than 120 people killed by the disastrous floods that swept across the Texas Hill Country one week ago. Flooding-related deaths have been reported in at least six counties. The victims include summer camp directors, teachers, grandparents, parents and dozens of children.

Read the stories of those who lost their lives here.

In an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press on Thursday, Trump said the Texas flood was a “once-in-every-200-year” event and said he supported the installation of an alarm system to warn of such emergencies.

“After having seen this horrible event, I would imagine you’d put alarms up in some form,” Trump told NBC’s Meet the Press on Thursday ahead of the trip, noting, “local officials were hit by this just like everybody else.”

Questions remain about what more could have been done to warn residents of the flooding, which surged the Guadalupe River nearly 30 feet in less than an hour. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s legislative agenda for an upcoming special session includes discussions on flood warning systems, communications and natural disaster preparation and recovery.

Here’s a breakdown of where the flooding deaths happened by county, according to the latest tolls from local officials:

Kerr County: 96
Travis County: 7
Kendall County: 8
Burnet County: 5
Williamson County: 3
Tom Green County: 1

Trump plans to visit the area on Friday, July 11, and meet with family members of flood victims and first responders during his trip, according to a White House official. Trump will also participate in a briefing and roundtable from local elected officials, the official said.

Trump and the first lady will land in Kerr County at 12:20 p.m., according to an official schedule.

Contributing: Jeanine Santucci, Kathryn Palmer, Joey Garrison