Ocasio-cortez: Texas disaster pushes many to the brink
“When disaster strikes, this is not just a issue for Texans, this is an issue for our entire country. Our whole country needs to come and rally together behind the needs of Texans all across the state.”
— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-cortezm N.Y.-D
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-cortez appeared at the Houston Food Bank on Saturday in support of her fundraising efforts for Texas storm relief, which she said have reached $3.2 million.
“When disaster strikes, this is not just a issue for Texans, this is an issue for our entire country,” said the Democrat, who was about 1,600 miles from her home district of the Bronx and Queens, New York. “Our whole country needs to come and rally together behind the needs of Texans all across the state.”
The Texas power grid has returned to normal operations as a historic cold blast eases, but the impact of the deep freeze has left many towns still without water, homes yet to be reconnected to electricity supplies and highways choked with ice and snow ahead of a warm-up in the next few days.
Many Texas families were already on the brink, Ocasio-cortez said.
“When you have a disaster like this it can just set people back for years, not just for days,” she said.
She called for the implementation of “short and long-term policy decisions so that this sort of devastation — preventable devastation — never happens again,” and also addressed a small crowd on hand in Spanish.
Ocasio-cortez spent time packing boxes of supplies at the food bank and was expected to visit other area food distribution centers.
President Joe Biden on Saturday approved a major disaster declaration for Texas, which will expedite federal funding for a state wracked with widespread power outages following a rare arctic blast this week.