Biden surveys Texas weather damage, encourages vaccines
HOUSTON — President Joe Biden heard firsthand from Texans clobbered by this month’s brutal winter weather Friday and pledged to stick with them “for the long haul” as he made his first trip to a major disaster area since he took office.
Mr. Biden was briefed by emergency officials and thanked workers for doing “God’s work.” He promised the federal government will be there for Texans as they try to recover — not only from the historic storm but also the public health and economic crises caused by the pandemic.
“When a crisis hits our states, like the one that hit Texas, it’s not a Republican or Democrat that’s hurting,” Mr. Biden said. “It’s our fellow Americans that are hurting, and it’s our job to help everyone in need.”
With tens of thousands of Houston area residents without safe water, local officials told Mr. Biden that many are still struggling. While he was briefed, first lady Jill Biden joined an assembly line of volunteers packing boxes of quick oats, juice and other food at the Houston Food Bank; Mr. Biden arrived later.
The president’s first stop was the Harris County Emergency Operations Center for a briefing from acting Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Bob Fenton and state and local emergency management officials.
Texas was hit particularly hard by the Valentine’s weekend storm that battered multiple states. Unusually frigid conditions led to widespread power outages and frozen pipes that burst and flooded homes. Millions of residents lost heat and running water.
At least 40 people in Texas died as a result of the storm, and although the weather has returned to more normal temperatures, more than 1 million residents are still under orders to boil water before drinking it.
“The president has made very clear to us that in crises like this, it is our duty to organize prompt and competent federal support to American citizens, and we have to ensure that bureaucracy and politics do not stand in the way,” said Homeland Security Adviser Liz SherwoodRandall, who accompanied Mr. Biden to Houston.
Mr. Biden was joined for much of his visit by Gov. Greg Abbott and Sen. John Cornyn, both Republicans; four Democratic, Houstonarea members of Congress; and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo.
The president also stopped by a massive federal-run COVID-19 vaccination center at NRG Stadium. Mr. Biden on Thursday commemorated the 50 millionth shot since he took office, halfway toward his goal of 100 million by his 100th day in office. That celebration followed a moment of silence to mark the passage earlier this week of 500,000 U.S. COVID-19 deaths.
Mr. Biden suggested he and Mr. Abbott and Mr. Cornyn could find common cause in getting Americans vaccinated as quickly as possible.
“We disagree on plenty of things,” Mr. Biden said. “There’s nothing wrong with that, but there are plenty of things we can work on together. And one of them is represented right here today: the effort to speed up vaccinations.”
Texas’ other U.S. senator, Ted Cruz was in Florida on Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
Mr. Cruz, who was criticized for taking his family to Cancun, Mexico, while millions of Texans shivered in unheated homes, made light of the controversy Friday.
“Orlando is awesome,” he said to laughs and hoots. “It’s not as nice as Cancun. But it’s nice.”
At the peak of the storm, more than 1.4 million residents were without power and 3.5 million were under boil-water notices in the nation’s third largest county.
The post-storm debate in Texas has centered on the state maintaining its own electrical grid and its lack of better storm preparation, including weatherization of key infrastructure.