Noem Defends FEMA Response to Texas Floods
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The visit by acting Administrator David Richardson is his first known trip to a disaster site since President Donald Trump made him FEMA’s top official.
Weeks before flash floods devastated the Texas Hill Country, Gov. Greg Abbott participated in the first meeting of a new council to overhaul the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He criticized FEMA as “slow and clunky,” arguing that states are able to respond “more nimbly, more swiftly, more effectively” to disasters.
Commissioners in Kerr County, Texas, are set to meet Monday in their first official court hearing since more than 100 people, including children and counselors at a summer camp, were killed in catastrophic flooding last week.
The early warnings and alerts from the National Weather Service didn’t indicate a catastrophic flood was on its way.
Forecasters warn that slow-moving storms could bring heavy downpours to already saturated areas, increasing the risk of flash flooding.
President Donald Trump met with victims' families and surveyed the damage of catastrophic floods that struck the state one week ago.
President Donald Trump is touring the devastation left by flash flooding in central Texas amid growing questions about how local officials responded to the crisis as well as questions about the federal response -- including the fate of the Federal Emergency Management Agency -- that he has so far avoided.
Ground search operations were disrupted Sunday in Kerr County, Texas, where many lives were lost in the catastrophic July 4 flooding.