WASHINGTON (AP) — Her voice breaking, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Tuesday that emergency responders in Texas are “still looking for a lot of little girls” who remain missing after a catastrophic flood during the holiday weekend.
Noem described the scene at Camp Mystic in Kerrville, Texas, at the urging of President Donald Trump as he opened a meeting with his Cabinet at the White House. Noem visited on Saturday, a day after floodwaters swept away the camp.
She said Texans are strong but “they’ve gone through something that is absolutely horrific, and it is heartbreaking to watch these families suffer the way that they are.”
Trump announced during the meeting that he and his wife, Melania, will visit on Friday.
Noem said she was “surprised” when she arrived at the camp and saw the devastation.
“The parents that were looking for their children and picking up their daughters’ stuffed animals out of the mud and finding their daughter’s shoe that might be laying in the cabin and, just hugging and comforting people matters a lot,” the secretary said.
“I’m extremely grateful for God’s hand in that whole situation because hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people were saved,” she said. “And and this is a time for all of us in this country to remember that we were created to serve each other.”
A wall of water slammed into camps and homes along the edge of the Guadalupe River before daybreak Friday, pulling people out of their cabins, tents and trailers and dragging them for miles past floating tree trunks and cars. Some survivors were found clinging to trees. More than 100 people were killed, including at least 27 campers and counselors. Officials said Monday that 10 campers and one counselor still have not been found.
The flood and its devastation appear to have, for the moment, tamped down talk by Trump and Noem of scaling back the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which helps states respond to natural disasters by providing water and other supplies and federal assistance.
Trump declined earlier this week to discuss his plans to shrink FEMA when a reporter asked if that was still his intent. Noem said Tuesday that FEMA supports states during disasters like this “and that’s exactly what we did here in this situation.”
