US president Donald Trump visited a relief centre in Houston on Saturday to meet those affected by Storm Harvey, which triggered severe flooding in Texas and presented his young administration with its most challenging domestic crisis.
Mr Trump landed at Ellington Field military base in Houston, accompanied by his wife Melania, before heading to NRG Stadium to meet survivors.
The president and first lady hugged and shook hands with people forced out of their homes by the widespread floods. At one point, Mr Trump picked up a child and kissed her on the cheek, and he later sat with a boy playing with toys. Some of evacuees took selfies with the first couple. After meeting with flood survivors and volunteers who assisted in relief efforts in Houston, Mr Trump will move on to Lake Charles, Louisiana, an area hammered by the storm later in the week, the White House said.
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Mr Trump, asked Congress late on Friday for an initial $7.85 billion (€6.62bn) for hurricane recovery efforts. The request comes as Washington faces tough budget negotiations. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has said his state may need more than $125 billion.
Mr Trump told reporters at the centre that his administration was moving fast to provide the financing for aid to the devastated region. “We are signing a lot of documents to get money,” he said.
He appeared relaxed as he posed for photographs with volunteers and chatted with those relocated to the shelter alongside Mr Abbott. Melania hugged a woman and chatted with a child.
“It has been a wonderful thing,” Mr Trump said of his meetings with the children as he helped serve food to evacuees amid shouts of “Thank you, sir.”
The visit gives the president an opportunity to show a warm and empathetic side to victims of the worst storm to hit Texas in 50 years. Some have criticised him for staying clear of the disaster zone during a visit to the region on Tuesday, when he said he did not want to hamper rescue efforts.
Four cabinet members including education secretary Betsy DeVos joined the president on the trip.
Paralysed
The storm, one of the costliest to hit the US, has displaced more than 1 million people, with 46 feared dead from flooding that paralysed Houston, swelled river levels to record highs and knocked out the drinking water supply in Beaumont, Texas, a city of 120,000 people.
After Hurricane Harvey came ashore last Friday, much of the damage took place in the Houston metropolitan area, which has an economy about the same size as Argentina’s.
Seventy per cent of Harris County, which encompasses Houston, at one point was covered with 45cm (18in) or more of water, county officials said.
When Mr Trump visited the Gulf of Mexico coastal region on Tuesday, he met state and local leaders and first responders, largely focusing on the logistics of the government response rather than the suffering of residents.
The storm, which lingered around the Gulf Coast for days, dumped record amounts of rain and left devastation across more than 480km (300 miles) of the state’s coast.
As water receded, many returned to survey the damage.
In Orange, Texas, Sam Dougharty (36) returned on Friday where waist-high water remained in his backyard and barn.
His family’s house smelled like raw sewage and was still flooded to the ankles. A calf and a heifer from their herd of 15 were dead.
“We never had water here. This is family land. My aunt’s owned it for 40 years and never had water here,” he said.
The area was slowly coming back to life, Orange County Sheriff Keith Merritt said on Saturday. But streets remained littered with flooded out vehicles and many homes were without power, he said.
Harvey came on the 12th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which killed about 1,800 around New Orleans. Then president George W Bush’s administration was roundly criticised for its botched early response to the storm.
While Mr Trump visits, attention will also turn to Minute Maid Park, where the Houston Astros play their first home baseball games since Harvey devastated the fourth-most populous US city. The Saturday doubleheader with the New York Mets is expected to be wrought with emotion and punctuated with moments to honour the dozens who died as a result of the storm.
A moment of silence in planned for those who perished.
Meanwhile a new storm, Irma, had strengthened on Friday into a Category 3 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale. It remained hundreds of kilometres from land but was forecast to possibly hit Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti by the middle of next week.
Reuters/AP