'Texas can handle anything:' Trump rallies hurricane victims as he surveys storm's damage
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President Trump and his wife Melania are visiting with Texas officials in one of the areas hit hardest by Hurricane Harvey. “This was of epic portion, nobody has ever seen anything like this,” said the president in Corpus Christi. (Aug. 29)
AP
President Trump mounted the front bumper of a fire truck in Corpus Christi, Texas on Tuesday, waving a Texas flag and telling the gathered crowd, “We love you. You are special. We are here to take care of you.”
Trump came to Texas to survey the damage from Hurricane Harvey and rally communities still trying to escape flood waters from 40 inches of rain.Â
“It’s historic, its epic, but I will tell you it happened in Texas and Texas can handle anything,” Trump told hundreds of people outside a firehouse where he had just received a briefing from federal agencies responding to the disaster.
Trump arrived in Corpus Christi for a two-city tour of hurricane-ravaged Texas in order to make sure the region is “receiving full support and cooperation from the federal government.” He was scheduled to fly on to Austin later for a tour of the state’s emergency operations center and meetings with state officials.
More: Trump may make multiple visits to hurricane-damaged Gulf Coast
“We want to be looked at in five years and ten years from now as ‘This is the way to do it,'” Trump said at a firehouse in Corpus Christi, Texas as dispatch calls came over an address system. But he said it’s too early to declare the relief efforts an unqualified success.
“We won’t say congratulations. We don’t want to do that,” he told Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. “We’ll congratulate each other when it’s all finished.”
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The windbreaker-wearing White House delegation included first lady Melania Trump, Housing Secretary Ben Carson, Health Secretary Tom Price and Small Business Administrator Linda McMahon.
On the ride from the airport, Trump’s motorcade passed trees, signs and fences knocked down by the hurricane’s 130 m.p.h. winds.Â
Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters aboard Air Force One that Trump’s schedule for the day is “fluid” but that Trump would intentionally avoid the areas most impacted by flooding.Â
“The president wants to be very cautious about making sure that any activity doesn’t disrupt any of the recovery efforts that are still ongoing, which is the reason for the locations we are going here today,” she said. “As of right now, I don’t know that we will be able to get to some of the really damaged areas.”
One of those areas is the city of Houston, where 9,000 people were sharing just 5,000 cots at a makeshift emergency shelter at the Houston Convention Center.Â
“We are very aware of the issues at the convention center,” Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Brock Long told Trump in Corpus Christi. “But let me be clear, this is not the Superdome.”
The New Orleans Superdome was perhaps the most enduring symbol of the poor response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.Â
Twelve years later, Hurricane Harvey has presented the most severe natural disaster of Trump’s presidency, dropping as much as 40 inches of rain on the Gulf Coast before weakening to a tropical storm on its way to Louisiana. Trump said Monday that he may return to Texas and Louisiana over the weekend.
Forecast: Here’s where Harvey is moving next.
Harvey pounds Texas: What we know now
“To the people of Texas and Louisiana: We are 100% with you,” Trump said Monday. “We’ve pledged our full support as Texas and Louisiana battle and recover from this very devastating and historic storm. There’s probably never been anything like this.”Â
As Trump was in the air, Vice President Pence took to the airwaves, continuing a blitz of radio and television interviews with local stations in the region.Â
“We know we’re not out of the woods,” he told KKTX-AM in Corpus Christi. “People within the sound of my voice should know that this is still a dangerous storm.”
The trip comes as Trump is also juggling the North Korea crisis. During his flight to Texas aboard Air Force One, Trump spoke with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore about the threat posed by North Korea, also thanking him for the use of a Singaporean Chinook helicopter detachment training with the Texas Air National Guard that helped with search-and-rescue missions.
Asked by reporters how he’ll respond to the regime’s latest missile test while boarding Marine One, Trump said, “We’ll see, we’ll see.” In an earlier statement, he said, “All options are on the table.”
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