President Trump to survey flood damage in central Texas on Friday : NPR

A Martínez, host:

In a few minutes, we will hear a former FEMA administrator on how the reductions offered to the agency could affect the recovery after claim. But first, we will check the last of the center of Texas, where President Trump is heading today.

Michel Martin, host:

It was about that time a week ago that the magnitude of the floods there started to concentrate. At least 120 people died and more than 170 others are listed as missing. Today, President Trump should see some of the worst first -hand damage.

Martínez: Frank Morris of NPR was in Kerr County. Frank, what will the president will see and do during his visit today?

Frank Morris, Byline: He will have a fairly busy afternoon here, A. He will meet the first stakeholders who have been working constantly for a week. He will also obtain a briefing of local elected officials, then will hold a discussion on the round table. And President Trump also plans to meet family members directly affected by this terrible flood.

Martínez: What do the people who live there on the president’s visit?

Morris: You know, I think most people directly affected by the flood have been too busy to really think about it. In Hunt, where some of the worst damage is, many people do not have the internet. They have a ton of immediate urgent problems. The government’s response was energetic. FEMA in town, although the agency’s acting director David Richardson was absent. The internal security secretary has been here, as well as other federal speakers. The main road along the Guadalupe river is just a pivot with the police and firefighters, Texas and others gamekeepers. Andi Fell (pH), who lives in Hunt, says she is delighted that Trump will arrive.

Andi Fell: You know, we are grateful. We are grateful to the support he has given us, you know, with other organizations, the governor. I have the impression that, from what I saw just being here, they did an excellent job with response and help.

Morris: Of course, there have been complaints from residents who believe that the answer has been uneven. It is quite common after these disasters. It is easy for a victim to feel ignored if he did not personally see a first speaker.

Martínez: Yeah, yes, it makes sense. However, however, it is a major help effort that is there. So people whose houses have been damaged, how do they get out of it?

Morris: Well, you know, they are doing a lot of volunteers. I’m talking about hundreds of people who make food, teams of volunteers looking for victims – volunteers cutting trees, volunteers operating shovels and volunteers who run heavy equipment. Bryce Flowers (PH) of Kerrville, who is here in the heat, passing his skid-dry charger for 10 hours a day since the floods and the recovery of the debris of people’s houses, he says that hundreds of people from all over Texas and several other states work just as hard.

Bryce Flowers: We have groups that have contacted us that we don’t even know who they are. They have been here for three or four days. We still haven’t seen their faces. We have just communicated them and direct them to the place that needs the maximum aid, and they have just jumped immediately. It is therefore a huge and enormous thing for people to meet, not only of our community, but of those around us.

Morris: And, of course, it’s also a huge and huge job in front of them. The destruction along the kilometers and kilometers of the Guadalupe river is breathtaking.

Martínez: And for many of these people, I mean, they are there on the front lines trying to clean things and do their best to search for bodies. I mean, the psychological assessment for them A – must also be quite enormous.

Morris: Oh, absolutely, A. Volunteers are there in search of bodies. Sometimes they find one, and they are not in good shape. I saw a community leader yesterday broke down by looking at the river. You see people shovel houses with tears in your eyes. And all deaths, at least 36 children, mainly little girls, have moved away from the Mystic camp, which strikes people. Alysha Strader (PH) is eight months pregnant with a girl, and Strader says that she and her husband were in a sort of limbo.

Alysha Strader: We spent a very difficult week, you know, in a way accepted when hearing the names of the little girls, then trying to be excited too, you know, to have a baby next month.

Morris: Yes, she says it was really heavy for them. And, of course, the psychological damage of a disaster like this can simply linger for years.

Martínez: Frank Morris of NPR in the center of Texas, Frank, thank you.

Morris: You bet, A.

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