WashingtonHomeland Security Secretary Kristi Noems revealed Tuesday, in a heartbreaking voice, that many young girls are still missing in Texas following a devastating flood over the holiday weekend.
At the request of President Donald Trump, who was opening a meeting with his Cabinet at the White House, Noem recounted the events at Camp Mystic near Kerrville, Texas. A day after the camp was washed away by floodwaters, Noem paid a visit on Saturday.
She claimed that although Texans are resilient, they have seen something utterly horrifying, and it is devastating to see these families go through what they have.
During the discussion, Trump revealed that he will be visiting on Friday with his wife, Melania.
When Noem arrived at the camp and saw the destruction, she said she was taken aback.
“Just hugging and comforting people matters a lot,” the secretary added, referring to the parents who were searching for their children, retrieving their daughters’ stuffed animals from the mud, and locating their daughter’s sneaker that might be lying in the cabin.
She expressed her gratitude for God’s intervention in the matter, saying, “Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people were saved.” And now is the moment for all of us in this nation to realize that our purpose in life was to serve one another.
Before sunrise on Friday, a wall of water rushed into homes and campgrounds along the Guadalupe River’s border, taking people for kilometers past automobiles and floating tree trunks and yanking them out of their cabins, tents, and trailers. There were survivors clinging to trees. There were at least 27 campers and counselors among the more than 100 individuals killed. Ten campers and one counselor are still missing, officials reported Monday.
Trump and Noem’s discussions about paring back the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which assists states in responding to natural disasters by supplying water and other supplies as well as federal support, seem to have been stifled for the time being by the flood and its destruction.
When a reporter asked Trump earlier this week if he still intended to cut FEMA, he declined to share his plans. Noem stated on Tuesday that FEMA assists states in times of crisis, and we did just that in this instance.
