Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem thanked God for saving lives during the horrendous flooding in Kerr County, Texas, over the holiday weekend, where more than 100 people died when the Guadalupe River began overrunning its banks before dawn on Friday, including 28 children. About 160 more people are still missing, according to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
One flood gauge showed the river rose more than 25 feet in just a couple of hours, spawning a wall of water that destroyed camps, trailers, and tents as people celebrated the 4th of July holiday.
“The people of Texas are strong. They’ve gone through something that is absolutely horrific, and it is heartbreaking to watch these families suffer the way that they are,” Noem said during a cabinet meeting Tuesday after a visit to the disaster zone Saturday.
“We’re still looking for people. We’re still looking for a lot of little girls and other family members that were camping along that river, and they will continue until they find every single person, and we will continue to help them and assist in that.”
Noem went on to tell President Donald Trump and his other top administration officials she was “surprised” by the devastation she saw along the river during her visit.
“The parents that were looking for their children and picking up their daughters’ stuffed animals out of the mud and finding their daughter’s shoe that might be lying in the cabin and, just hugging and comforting people, matters a lot,” the secretary said.
Noem was referring to Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp for girls along the river where 10 girls and a counselor were still missing as of Monday, according to KXAS-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth.
“Just hugging and comforting people matters a lot,” she insisted. “I’m extremely grateful for God’s hand in that whole situation because hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people were saved,” she said, sounding rather awkward and tone deaf when so many children were killed in such a terrible way.
And plenty of people were upset by her comments.
“How did God choose the people who survived?” another asked.“Wow, it’s all okay because hundreds weren’t killed!” still another observed.
“That’s like saying, “think about all the planes that landed” after a horrific plane crash,” one person wrote.
Trump spent the first months of his presidency gutting federal agencies and laying off thousands of federal workers, including at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Weather Service.
“FEMA’s been deployed and we’re cutting through the paperwork of the old FEMA, streamlining it, much like your vision of how FEMA should operate, and it’s been a much better response to help these families get through this terrible situation,” Noem said, pandering to Trump.
Trump signed a major disaster declaration for Texas after the deadly flooding. He also announced Tuesday that he and first lady Melania Trump are planning to visit the disaster zone Friday.
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