President Donald Trump said Sunday that he was confident in the federal disaster response in Texas in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, even as heavy rains caused more flooding in and around the city of Houston, and weather forecasts indicated several more feet of rain could fall in coming days in some Gulf Coast areas of Texas.
"Great coordination between agencies at all levels of government. Continuing rains and flash floods are being dealt with," the President said in a series of tweets about the storm, as the White House announced Sunday afternoon that Mr. Trump would travel to the Lone Star State on Tuesday to see some of the damage and recovery efforts.
"We are coordinating logistics with state and local officials," Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters. "We continue to keep all of those affected in our thoughts and prayers.”
As for the effort to send help to Texas authorities, the President was upbeat about that initial work.
"Good news is that we have great talent on the ground," Mr. Trump added from Camp David, where he joined in a late morning video briefing on the storm, which was threatening to dump upwards of three feet of rain on some areas in Texas, as the storm was moving slowly - maybe back out into the Gulf of Mexico in coming days.
Credit: Jamie Dupree
Credit: Jamie Dupree
On the ground in Texas, lawmakers in Congress were joining with state and local officials to give out life saving information to those hit hardest by the rising flood waters, mainly urging people to 'shelter in place.'
"FEMA is going to be there for years," FEMA chief Brock Long told CNN, as the scope of the disaster seemed to get worse every hour, with the forecast showing more and more rain for the region around Houston.
The official forecast from the National Hurricane Center shows the center of Harvey still in eastern Texas on Friday - which would mean a full week of rain for some areas, possibly causing catastrophic flooding in the region.
"This event is unprecedented and all impacts are unknown and beyond anything experienced," the National Weather Service said on Sunday morning.
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