Trump tries to avoid Katrina in Harvey
President vows full response to flooding in Texas in a bid to avoid the criticism faced by predecessor Bush
US President Donald Trump arrived in Texas on Tuesday and vowed that the federal government would have a complete response to the devastating flooding of tropical storm Harvey, the biggest natural disaster of his White House tenure.
The storm has brought record-breaking rains and catastrophic flooding to Texas, killed nine people, led to mass evacuations and paralysed Houston, the fourth most-populous US city. Some 30,000 people were expected to seek emergency shelter as the flooding entered its fourth day.
Officials in Harris County, where Houston is located, said reservoirs built to handle drainage water were beginning to overflow on Tuesday. They urged residents to evacuate as they released water to alleviate pressure on two dams, a move that would add to flooding along the Buffalo Bayou waterway that runs through the area. Brazoria County, south of Houston, also called for immediate evacuations around a levee Columbia Lakes that had been breached by floodwaters from Harvey.
Mr Trump, speaking in Corpus Christi, near where Harvey first came ashore last week, said he wanted the relief effort to stand as an example of how to respond to a storm “We want to do it better than ever before,” he said. “... This was of epic proportion. Nobody’s ever seen anything like this.”
Harvey has drawn comparisons with Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans 12 yeas ago, killing 1,800 people. Former President George W. Bush was criticised for his handling of the response to the disaster, taking a heavy toll on public support of his administration. Mr Trump aims to avoid a similar reaction. — Reuters