He President of the United States, Donald Trump, and the first lady, Melaniathey have visited this Friday the Devastated Texas Center Zone by the floods which caused the Overflow of the Guadalupe River For heavy rains. The catastrophe is one of the worst in state history and has left At least 121 deadincluding dozens of minors, including girls who participated in a Christian camp.
Between pain and efforts to locate more than 170 people that for this Friday They still had been locatedthe federal response scrutiny to disaster. And the Questions about the impact that Trump’s government has been able to have, especially for Personnel cuts and other limitations of operation of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA for its acronym in English) or other departments related to the prevention and alert.
Delays
Information from CNN and ‘The Washington Post’ have returned the spotlights on actions he took Kristi Noem, Secretary of National Security (The department on FEMA), which imposed that Any contract or action of the agency whose cost will exceed $ 100,000 It must be previously authorized by her.
That step, according to complaints from some media sources, caused Impact delays In Texas. Although Governor Greg Abbott did the emergency request on Saturday y Trump signed on Sunday a federal assistance order, Until Monday the authorization of Noem did not arrive for jobs for search and rescue equipment, which could not be deployed until Tuesday, Making decisive hours. The secretary signed several contracts on Thursday, according to documents that the ‘post’ has seen, including to establish a Telephone Center for Affected and for housing inspections impacted, which then serve to make claims.
Politicization and cuts
Trump, that as a candidate politicized and attacked The response of FEMA to natural disasters under the government of Joe Bidenand that even from the beginning of his second presidency He has talked about abolishing the agency, but More responsibility for states y spend less federal moneyHe has defended Noem and his government’s response. On a round table during the visit with open statements to the press, has denied that there have been problems or delays. And he has repeated his argument that what happened in Texas, where “a small narrow river became a monster”, has been a “Nature inevitable act” And a catastrophe that had not been seen in 100 years (Thursday in an interview in NBC raised the image until two centuries and this Friday has spoken of 500 years).
In the spotlight, however, they are Personnel cuts in Femathat He has lost a room of his staff Since he arrived at the White House. The cuts have also affected Other organisms related to disaster preparation, such as The National Meteorological Servicethat emits the alerts. And US media have published that there are efederal mpleades that have not completed training and preparation exercises that were usually done before the season began in which natural disasters risks such as floods or hurricanes are increased.
Before Trump undertook the trip to Texas Russ Vought, the Project Architect 2025 in front now of the Blanc Casa Management and Budget OfficeA, he has told the press that the president no longer wants to abolish the agency but he continues to aspire to “Reorganize it“To, he said,” Let it work well. “” We want it to be renovated. The president will continue asking difficult questions of all of us, nothing different from any other opportunity to have a better government, ”said Vought, one of the ideologues of the ideologues of the deep cuts in government and that has gained weight in that effort since Elon Musk He stopped working with Trump.
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