Donald Trump suggests reporter is "evil" for asking about preparations ahead of deadly floods in Texas

SBS Australia

12 hours ago

Listen to Australian and world news, and follow trending topics with SBS News Podcasts . As he surveyed the damage from the deadly Fourth of July weekend floods in Texas that have killed at least 120 people, U-S President Donald Trump appeared temporarily lost for words. "We just were making a little tour of the area. It's hard to believe the devastation. Trees that are 100 years old just ripped out of the ground. I've never seen anything like it." But Mr Trump soon recovered his composure. He has previously been fond of decrying officials in Democrat-run states hit by past natural disasters and tragedy. During his visit to the Texas flood plain in America's most populous Republican state, the president struck a far more sombre and sympathetic tone - highlighting the heartbreak of what happened while effusively praising elected officials and first responders alike. "I think everyone did an incredible job under the circumstances. This was, I guess Kristi (Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem) said, a one in 500, one in 1,000 years. And I just have admiration for the job that everybody did. There's just admiration." Within that sympathetic stance, there has been little room for dissent. When a reporter asked him about whether the warning alert system for the devastating floods worked as well as it could have, Mr Trump lashed out. "Only a bad person would ask a question like that. I don't know who you are, but only a very evil person would ask you a question that." Texas Republican Representative Chip Roy was on the tour with the president and backed his criticism of the reporter. "The governor said it best when he said that pointing fingers is for losers. This state is about looking forward and we'll figure out how to make our systems the best they can be. But importantly, when you see 26 feet of water rising a foot per minute, don't go around pointing fingers." That's something some locals - like nurse Aliz Treibs - agrees with. "I know that everybody is trying to find fault and blame right now and try to make it about politics. But I just feel like this really has been just a horrible, horrible act of nature and nobody could have controlled this either way." But others, like the pastor at Christ is King church - Michael Bell - says there ARE people who should be held responsible for what happened, even if it's unclear who they might be. "I know there was something similar to this in 1987 that took some lives - not as extreme as this. But I know after that there were some discussions of some grander scale plans that could have been implemented to avoid catastrophe as regards to human life, you know? So, there will be some accountability that has to happen. Some changes need to be made for sure." Concerns about the official preparation for and response to the disaster have started at the top. Since the flood, the president has been conspicuously silent on his past, repeated promises to do away with the national disaster agency FEMA as part of his plan to dramatically shrink the size of government. Some have asked if those federal government cuts could have weakened the flood preparations or response. Dr Rick Spinrad - the former administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees the National Weather Service - has told CNN that it's impossible to say right now. "A lot of the weather forecast offices now are not operating at full complement of staff, which means that you're really putting an extra burden on these folks. I don't know how much that was a factor in what happened in Texas." But it's at the state and local level where most of the questions are being asked. Camp Mystic's disaster plan was approved by Texas officials just two days before the floods swept away an estimated 27 campers and staff members. The Department of State Health Services released records earlier this week showing the camp complied with a host of state regulations around procedures to be implemented in the case of a disaster. It remains unclear what was in the plan and whether or not it was carried out. The actions of the police have also been in the spotlight, Community Services Officer, Jonathan Lamb at the Kerrville Police Department saying he would characterise it as heroic. "One of our patrol sergeants lives out there in Hunt (Texas). And he got up and got ready to go to work. And he realized, when he hit the intersection of FM 1340 and Highway 39, that he was trapped on an island that was Hunt, Texas. And he saw people, dozens of people, trapped on roofs. He saw people trapped in swift moving water. He gave them encouragement over his public address system in his vehicle. He told them to be strong, that he would get to him as quickly as he could, and to hang on, and he knew he needed help. He went to another detective, Kerrville Police Department detective who lives out there and he woke him up and he said, it's bad, I need you to get your gear on and come find me. And then he went back out. And for 13 hours, those two officers, along with some Hunt volunteer fire department firefighters and an emergency room doctor, provided care to that Hunt community." Meanwhile, the American ABC News network has reported that a firefighter in Ingram, upstream of Kerrville, had asked the Kerr County Sheriff's Office at 4:22am on the 4th of July to alert residents of nearby Hunt of the coming flood. The network said its affiliate KSAT obtained audio of the call, which suggested the first alert did not reach Kerr County's CodeRed system for a full 90 minutes, with some warning messages not arriving until after 10am, when hundreds of people had already been swept away by raging waters. Kerr County ultimately experienced the biggest loss of life in the region. Governor Gregg Abbott has scheduled a special session of the Texas Legislature, beginning July 21, which will discuss improving warning systems for weather events. Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha says local officials will have their own review - once they've completed the task of recovering those who perished in the floodwaters and cleaning up the area.
"As with other significant events that our emergency services encounter, this incident will be reviewed. You have my word... You know, we don't have - we're not running. We're not gonna hide from anything. That's gonna be checked into at a later time."