(Kerrville) Donald Trump arrived in Texas on Friday, a state bruised by floods that caused the death of at least 120 people, when the response of the local and federal authorities is pointed out.
The American president and his wife Melania are visiting a few hours, a week just after the disaster, for which the authorities always have more than 170 missing.
The center of Texas was struck on July 4, the day of national holiday in the United States, by torrential rains which caused sudden floods, surprising many inhabitants in their sleep.
In total, at least 120 dead linked to floods were identified. The county of Kerr is the hardest hit with 96 dead, including 36 children.
Photo Umit Bektas, Reuters
A member of a research and rescue team and his dog are looking for disappeared people in the middle of debris in the waters of the Guadalupe river, near the Mystic camp, on July 11, 2025 in Hunt.
This is where Donald Trump arrived on Friday, to “be with some of the super families” of flood victims, he told the press before flying from Washington, calling the natural disaster of “horrible”.
A Christian girl holiday camp, located in the locality of Hunt, on the banks of the Guadalupe river, paid a heavy price: 27 children and monitors perished in the disaster.
Bureaucratic obstacles
The visit of the American president intervenes while the questions are more pressing on the management of the crisis by the local authorities and on the impact of the budget cuts, wanted by the Trump administration, on the alert and rescue systems.
Photo Jacquelyn Martin, Associated Press
People look at the convoy carrying Donald Trump and his wife Melania to go to Kerrville on July 11, 2025.
Questioned shortly after the disaster to find out if he always intended to gradually delete the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Donald Trump replied that it was not the time to talk about it.
The Republican leader, who had previously declared that in the event of a disaster, the emergency services had to be managed at the level of the States, also quickly signed a disaster declaration in order to provide Texas the federal resources.
The immediate response to the disaster on the part of the federal state “was rapid and efficient,” insisted on X Secretary with Homeland Security, Kristi Noem on Thursday.
But the CNN channel says that FEMA’s rescue operations have been delayed by bureaucratic obstacles after a new rule adopted by the minister aimed at reducing expenses.
Last week, the White House had to respond to the criticisms that the budget cuts in national weather services had informed the reliability of forecasts and alerts.
His spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said that the American weather services (NWS) had issued “predictions and alerts that are both precise and in due time”.
“Red code”
The sheriff of Kerr County, Larry Leitha, said it was alerted “around 4 or 5 am” by calls for rescue services.
According to the Texan Ksat channel, a local firefighter requested at 4:22 a.m. the sending of “red code” alerts, an emergency message on the phones of the inhabitants of Hunt, the most affected locality, while the waters of the Guadalupe river, supplied by torrential rains, rose dangerously.
However, according to this local media affiliated with CNN and ABC, the sheriff’s office would have asked the firefighter to wait, time to obtain the authorization of a superior.
“Red Code” alerts were reportedly sent at least 90 minutes later, around 6 a.m., and the message took up to six hours to reach certain residents of Hunt, according to Ksat.
Questioned several times this week on this subject, local authorities have not responded.
More than 2,000 rescuers, police and cynophile teams, supported by helicopters, excavate the area tirelessly for seven days to try to locate the disappeared, even if the chances of finding them alive are now tiny.
The last living person was rescued on July 4, the same day of the flood, according to the authorities.
