President and first lady visit Harvey victims in Houston

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump traveled to Houston Saturday to meet victims displaced by Harvey. The president said he sees “a lot of love” amid the devastation caused by the tropical storm and its record-setting rainfall and flooding. Authorities now say 43 people have died as a result of the storm. It was Trump’s second visit to Texas this week. On Tuesday, the president stayed away from Houston to avoid disrupting recovery work. While visiting the city’s NRG Center, one of several mega-shelters housing hundreds of flood victims, Trump praised federal relief efforts. “I think people appreciate what’s been done,” he said. “It’s been done very efficiently, very well. And that’s what we want.” The president and first lady are scheduled to visit Lake Charles, La., another hard-hit area, later on Saturday. On Friday night, Trump sent Congress an initial request for $7.9 billion toward relief and recovery efforts, a request lawmakers likely will approve once they return from their summer break on Tuesday. Meanwhile, officials in Beaumont, Texas, are handing out bottled water to residents this weekend to help them get by until the city’s water system is up and running again. On Thursday, the Neches River overflowed into the Beaumont’s main water intake system, causing backup pumps to fail. The Army Corp of Engineers has sent pumps to help restore service, and ExxonMobil, which has refinery and chemical plants in the city, dispatched a team to build and install a temporary intake pipe to the treatment plant.

See “Harvey Relief” for information on organizations assisting victims affected by the storm.