HOUSTON (AP) – President Joe Biden’s public empathy has been on display on his trip to a place of great disaster since he took office just over a month ago. The president and his wife, Jill, are in Texas to survey the damage caused by the harsh winter and to encourage people to get vaccines against the coronavirus.
Brutal winter weather across the south over Valentine’s Day weekend hit several states, with Texas enduring the impact of frigid off-season conditions that caused widespread power outages and frozen pipes that exploded and flooded homes. Millions of residents lost heat and running water.
At least 40 people died in Texas as a result of the storm and although the weather has returned to more normal temperatures, over 1 million residents are still under orders to boil water before drinking it.
“The president has made it very clear to us that in crises like this, it is our duty to organize quick and competent federal support for American citizens, and we must ensure that bureaucracy and politics do not get in the way,” said Homeland Security Adviser Liz Sherwood- Randall, who accompanied Biden to Houston
Biden planned to meet with local leaders to discuss the storm, relief efforts and progress towards recovery and to visit a food bank and find volunteers. He was to be accompanied by the Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott.
While in Houston, the Democratic president also planned to visit a center for mass vaccination against coronavirus at NRG Stadium, which is administered by the federal government. Biden celebrated the 50 millionth COVID-19 vaccination on Thursday since taking office, halfway to his goal of 100 million kicks on his 100th day in office. This celebration took place after a moment of silence to mark the passage of 500,000 deaths in the United States earlier this week. guilty of the disease.
The post-storm debate in Texas focused on maintaining the state’s electricity grid and the lack of preparedness for storms, including the conditioning of the main infrastructure. Some state officials initially attributed blackouts to renewable energy, although Texas is a major user of fossil fuels like oil and gas.
Sherwood-Randall said he continues to Texas on how to strengthen his public services.
“Fundamentally, the first decision must be made by the state of Texas as to what type of power system it wants to maintain, what type of energy market it wants to maintain,” she said.
The White House said Biden’s goal when visiting was to support, not scold.
“I hope that what he will do during this trip today is to ask each person who finds what you need, how I can help you the most,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. “And what can we get more for you from the federal government. And it is important for him to do it personally, he has this direct involvement ”.
Biden declared a major disaster in Texas and asked federal agencies to identify additional resources to assist in the recovery. The Federal Emergency Management Agency sent emergency generators, bottled water, ready-to-eat meals and blankets.
Galveston County Judge Mark Henry said in an interview that he did not know what else the federal government could do to help because the failures occurred at the state level. But Henry, a Republican who is the highest county official in Houston’s suburban county, said that if Biden “thinks it’s important to visit, come down.”
Biden wanted to make the trip last week, but said at the time that he restrained himself because he did not want his presence and entourage to hamper the recovery effort.
Biden, whose life has been marked by personal tragedies, is known for his ability to empathize with others and their suffering. His first wife and daughter died in a car collision in 1972. His son, Beau Biden, died of brain cancer in 2015 at the age of 46.
Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn planned to join Biden, a spokesman said.
Senator Ted Cruz, an ally of former President Donald Trump and one of a handful of Republican lawmakers who opposed the Congress that certified Biden’s victory, was in Florida speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
Cruz was recently criticized for taking his family to Cancún, Mexico, while millions of Texans shuddered in their unheated homes during the disaster. Cruz later said the trip was a mistake. Cruz ignored his misstep for the CPAC crowd.
“Orlando is incredible,” he said, laughing and booing. “It is not as good as Cancún. But it’s good. “
Houston was also the destination for Trump’s first presidential visit to a disaster area in 2017, after Hurricane Harvey caused catastrophic floods that August.
Trump, who is not known for demonstrations of empathy, did not meet the victims of the storm on the visit. He returned four days later and asked people who had moved to a shelter to “have fun”.
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Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Zeke Miller and Aamer Madhani contributed reports.