Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said Sunday the “real story” of the deadly flooding in Texas is the “heroism of those who showed up” to help, as opposed to who might be to blame.
“I think the real story is not all the finger-pointing that the media wants to point to. It’s the heroism of those who showed up like Ian there with the Coast Guard, who I was standing next to when we met with the president, talking about his feelings as a dad,” Roy told anchor Shannon Bream on “Fox News Sunday.”
“There was another young man in the Coast Guard talking about how he keeps Jolly Ranchers in his pocket, and he was handing Jolly Ranchers to the little girls that were on the helicopter with him,” he added. “It’s the heroism of all of the first responders in Kerrville.”
Roy added later that as you drive into Kerrville, Texas, which was at the center of the flooding, there’s a large cross on a hill.
“And if you ask me what the story of this whole tragedy is, it’s the cross. And it’s the power of the cross,” he said.
At least 129 people were killed in flooding that began on July 4 along the Guadalupe River in central Texas, with about 170 people still missing as search operations stretch into a second week.
Federal, state and local officials have faced questions about why early warning systems were not installed in known flood zones, and why a summer camp was allowed to expand in a dangerous flood plain.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has denied reports that federal aid to Texas was delayed due to a new rule requiring her sign-off on all Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grants or contracts worth more than $100,000.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) used a football analogy to criticize those seeking to assign blame for the tragedy, drawing criticism from Democrats.
“Every football team makes mistakes,” Abbott said. “The losing teams are the ones that try to point out who is to blame. The championship teams are the ones that say ‘Don’t worry about it, man. We got this. We’re going to make sure that we go score again and then we’re going to win this game.’”
President Trump and first lady Melania Trump went to the Texas Hill Country earlier this week.
“I’ve been to a lot of hurricanes and tornadoes and I’ve never seen anything like this,” President Trump said at a roundtable featuring local, state and federal officials after touring the area.
Trump has also commended Noem over the federal response to the Texas floods, while the administration has changed its tune on terminating FEMA entirely after the disaster.
Noem said Sunday her department was on the ground in Texas almost immediately after the flooding began.
“Within just an hour or two after the flooding, we had resources from the Department of Homeland Security there, helping those individuals in Texas,” she said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“It was a heartbreaking scene. And I think it’s been well covered about what the Coast Guard did, how they were deployed immediately and helped rescue so many individuals from those floodwaters.”
