Remarks in a Roundtable Discussion on Flooding Damage and Recovery Efforts With First Responders and Local Officials and an Exchange With Reporters in Kerrville, Texas

The President. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much, everybody.

Well, this is a tough one. And——

[At this point, the President's microphone turned off.]

——[inaudible]—we just were making a little tour of the area. It's hard to believe the devastation. Trees that are a hundred years old just ripped out of the ground.

I've never seen anything like it. Now, I've seen a lot of bad ones. I've gone to a lot of hurricanes and a lot of tornadoes. I've never seen anything like this. This is a bad one.

We just visited with incredible families that—I mean, look, they've been devastated. They lost their child or two children. And just hard to believe what—I've never seen anything like it: a little, narrow river that becomes a monster. And that's what happened.

But the First Lady and I are here in Texas to express the love and support and the anguish of our entire nation in the aftermath of this really horrific and deadly flood.

Nobody has any idea how and why a thing like this could happen. It's—and by the way, I have to tell you, the people here—first responders, the sheriff's office, the—all of the police, law enforcement—they've done an unbelievable job. And, in speaking to the parents, they said everybody has been so professional, from the Governor to the Senators, all the way down to the local people on the site that, really, are a little bit used to this. But they've been looking at this for years, but in much smaller doses—you know, much, much smaller doses.

Twelve years ago and in 1932, they had a real bad one, but that bad one was half of what this was. But I was speaking to some of the great people in the town, and they said, "No, every year, we get a little bit." But it was, like, a little bit of a flood, right?

You were telling me: "And it was just a flood. We get used to—we had people—we took care of it. And this year it was—it was like, 'What's going on?'" Right?

So, all across the country, Americans' hearts are shattered. I had to be here as president. First lady wanted to be here. And all the beautiful souls—and we're filled with grief and devastation. It was just—the loss of life. And unfortunately, they're still looking. They're still looking. There's a lot of missing children, possibly, mostly—we don't know. But they're still looking. And they'll find everybody, but it's not an easy thing. You would think it would be easy. It's very tough. I looked at what they're going through, what they have to do.

But dozens and dozens of precious children taken from us with such—I looked at the pictures of—almost all of them, and it's terrible.

Following a torrential downpour—the worst that anyone's ever seen—Guadalupe River rose 26 feet in less than 45 minutes. And I've even heard it went well over 30 feet. There's one story that—one person said it had to be 60 feet at one moment.

This is like a giant, giant wave in the Pacific Ocean that the best surfers in the world would be afraid to surf. And it unleashed a catastrophic flooding as the most—most residents were asleep in their beds—a very dark evening.

The waters claimed at least 135, 140 lives. They're getting that count, but the count that they don't have is how many are still missing.

But a lot of lives, a lot of young angels at the girls Christian summer camp known as Camp Mystic—a legendary camp, a camp that people would want to go to from all over the country. People, parents—they'd come, and they would stay with their children. They'd stay in other cabins just to be with their children. But a legendary place.

They were there because they loved God. And as we grieve this unthinkable tragedy, we take comfort in the knowledge that God has welcomed those little, beautiful girls into His comforting arms in Heaven. And we believe that. Have to believe that. And we do.

And we lost some wonderful people beyond the little girls. We lost some very brave men and women that tried to save the girls. As our Nation, we mourn for every single life that was swept away in the flood, and we pray for the families that are left behind.

It's amazing, the incredible spirit from those families. I don't know—I don't even know how they do it.

But moments ago, Melania and I spent a lot of time with them. That's why we're a little late. I think this was a good reason to be late, frankly. And we just gave our warmest condolences. But you say to yourself, you know: "How do you give condolences? How do you do that to a young person that, 3 days ago, was here; 4 days ago, was here and vibrant and now is no longer here?"

The search for the missing continues. The people that are doing it are unbelievable people. The—you couldn't get better people than this anywhere, Kristi, right? Anywhere in the world, you couldn't get better people. And they're doing the job like I don't think anybody else could, frankly.

And I want to thank them. I want to thank all of these great first responders who raced into very grave danger. We have some people that were incredible.

A single Coast Guard rescue crew saved an incredible 169 children at Camp Mystic—169. And the camp staff was also incredibly courageous.

Are those Coast Guard people around here someplace? Because I hear some incredible, incredible people—and I actually—Scott Ruskan, is he around? Where is Scott?

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi L. Noem. He's not here right now, sir——

The President. So——

Secretary Noem. ——but he will be here later, and I will be——

The President. Oh, okay. Well, you let him know——

Secretary Noem. ——presenting them with some—I'll let him know.

The President. And John Dunn, the owner of the Hunt Store, was a flood—where are you? Okay. Good. We spoke a little while ago, and it sort of—we—John was telling me some stories about that store, and it was just really amazing.

Hunt Preservation Society Board Member John Dunn. Yes, Mr. President. First, let me correct, I'm—was owner of The Hunt Store from 2013 till April of last year, where I actually sold the store to Haley and B.B. Lehrmann——

The President. Right.

Mr. Dunn. ——who are excellent operators, and they're on the ground right now in Hunt, leading the effort there, together with——

The President. Good.

Mr. Dunn. ——the fire department, the churches, the schools, what have you.

The President. Good.

Mr. Dunn. And they're doing a phenomenal job.

The President. Good, John.

Mr. Dunn. My role in it is, as seller, finance the deal, and so I——

The President. You're going to bring it back?

Mr. Dunn. I'm absolutely going to bring it back, together with Haley and B.B.

The President. And the walls are up? The two walls are up, and you're going to——

Mr. Dunn. They'll get——

The President. And you're going to just——

Mr. Dunn. There's belief out there that it was a total loss. It's not. A gentleman by the name of Larry Graham put up some incredible walls in 1973. And he's a great engineer, and those walls are still standing.

The President. Save the walls.

Mr. Dunn. Save the walls.

The President. Okay.

Mr. Dunn. And the goal is—and I think we can get it done—between Haley, B.B., myself, and some outside help that we're going to be getting, I think we're going to get it reopened very quickly.

The President. Good.

Mr. Dunn. I think it's important to get it open quickly, because once we do, the community can get back to a sense of normalcy. I think it will be good for the community. I think it will accelerate the recovery process.

There's a lot that has to be done, but I'm impressed and very pleased with the resources that I think are going to become available through the conversations with Chip Roy, Governor Abbott's office, and others——

The President. Good.

Mr. Dunn. ——that we will get it done quickly. Yes, sir.

The President. Thanks, John. Good luck with it. Okay?

Mr. Dunn. Thank you very much.

The President. I'm sure you will.

The search for the missing is continuing, as you know. And today I especially want to thank all of these incredible people from the Coast Guard. And you'll give my regards, in particular, to some of the people we mentioned.

Every American should be inspired by what's taken place during this short period of time.

And I want to thank Governor Abbott. He's an amazing guy—become very, very close, politically and personally. And we've had a tremendous relationship with Texas. I guess Texas brought us together. We were together fine, but now we're together a lot more.

And I want to thank Cecilia, your great wife, who's been our friend for a long time. The job you do is really incredible and in so many different ways, including with the border and every different way. Admired by everybody.

Secretaries Kristi Noem, Brooke Rollins, Scott Turner, and Administrator Kelly Loeffler—they all wanted to be here. Some of them hopped on the plane with me.

Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, you're here among us. And thank you very much.

Our great Lieutenant Governor, I see you sitting there. I don't know if they even have your name down, but when I'm here, your name is down, right? Huh? He's doing a good job. Always did. Always did.

Also, numerous Members of Congress, including Chip Roy from the district. This is Chip's district. I had a lot of time last week we spent with Chip Roy getting that great "Big Beautiful Bill" passed. And who would have thought? Who—and he's not easy, but he's good. [Laughter] Where is he? Where is Chip? Who would have thought this was going to happen?

And he called because we had a big ceremony set up, and he said, "You know, we have a little bit of a flood here, and I think it's going to be a little bit—I'd better stay here. I'd better not come back and go to it." And he wanted to be there. He was a part of it—a big part of it. And then he called again, and he said, "This is bad." And then it got really bad, far beyond your worst, wildest imagination, right?

So thank you very much, Chip. I appreciate it.

And Brian Babin also is—I don't know if Brian is here. But we do have—and I have to just give some of the names, because this is—it's very unusual. Nathaniel Moran, Dan Crenshaw—all of these people wanted to be here—Keith Self, Jake Ellzey, August Pfluger, Craig Goldman, Ronny Jackson. Where are you people? Are you here? You're all here?

Where's Ronny Jackson? Ronny Jackson, what a person. Every one of these people is so incredible. Randy Weber, Pete Sessions, Tony Gonzales. Wow, have everybody. Beth Van Duyne. Hi, Beth. Hi Beth. Roger Williams. Brandon Gill. Hi, Roger.

Brandon, you're here, yes? Thanks, Brandon. Doing a good job, Brandon. Michael Cloud, John Carter, and Wesley Hunt. And we have others, but I'm not—we just—we have to get on with it.

But I did want to ask Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick—he's been my friend from the beginning. He's been the chairman of all three of my campaigns. And all I know is we won by record amounts, so I guess you were a pretty good chairman, right, Dan? And his son is fantastic too. But Attorney General Ken Paxton—Ken is around here someplace. Hi, Ken. Hi.

And director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, Freeman Martin. Freeman, thank you very much. You're doing an amazing job. Texas chief emergency management, Nim Kidd, thank you. Thank you very much. And thank you for greeting us too. Major General Thomas Suelzer of the Texas Military Department. Thomas, great job. Thank you. Really good job.

And many, many of the other officials and government—everybody is here. You know, it's amazing, I do these things, and often you don't have—you just don't have a turnout like this. Half of government is here.

But my administration is doing everything in its power to help Texas. And I can tell you that—and the Governor will be the first to tell you that when the request was made for the emergency funds, Kristi, I think we gave it within about 2 minutes, maybe less, and they had everything they needed—right?—right——

Governor Gregory W. Abbott of Texas. Absolutely.

The President. ——immediately.

So we've deployed over 400 first responders and assisted or enabled more than 1,500 rescues. Amazing—1,500.

Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Coast Guard have deployed numerous search-and-rescue crews, and they're—they're all over the territory—and trauma teams—and beyond this area. You know, the Governor was saying we have—we've gone a little bit beyond this area.

Oh, there's Dr. Phil. Look at Dr. Phil. You're looking good, Phil. This is a hell of a situation, isn't it, huh?

Television personality Phil McGraw. It's heartbreaking.

The President. FEMA has deployed multiple emergency response units, and FEMA has been really headed by some very good people. We have some good people running FEMA. It's about time—right?—we get some good ones. They failed us in North Carolina, but when we got in on January 20, they fixed it up in no time.

And the Army Corps of Engineers is always around and always strong and brilliant.

We're also taking historic action to ensure that such a nightmare never happens again. And we're going to look and see how can a thing like this—they could say it's a 100-year—somebody said it's a 500-year event. I—it doesn't—we're not going to let a thing like this happen again where it can wreak this kind of devastation.

Earlier this year, I directed a sweeping review of the preparedness and critical infrastructure. I think, again, I have to say when I—whenever I say that, I have to say that the level of professionalism was incredible, but we'll all work together to find out exactly what can be done, because they do want to rebuild, and they're going to.

I just want to say we have a wonderful First Lady, and she's done a great job as First Lady, and she really—a very special woman. When she saw what—and met the people that we met just a little while ago, it's very devastating.

And would you like to say a few words, honey?

The First Lady. My deepest sympathy to all of the parents who lost beautiful, young souls. Deepest sympathy from all of us to the community, to everybody who lost a loved one. We are grieving with you. Our Nation is grieving with you.

We just met with the wonderful families. We pray with them. We hug. We hold hands. They share the stories. And I met beautiful young ladies. They gave me this special bracelet from the camp in honor of the—all of the little girls that they lost their lives.

So we are here to honor them and also to give the support, help. And I will be back, I promised to them. And I just pray for them and giving them my strength and love.

The President. Thank you, honey. That's very nice.

The First Lady. Thank you.

The President. Thank you very much.

So I just want to say, God bless you all. And I'd like to ask Governor Abbott to say a few words, please. Thank you.

Gov. Abbott. Well, first of all, thank you, Mr. President, and thank you, First Lady. The first thing both of you mentioned were the lives that were affected by this.

Whenever there's a disaster or a catastrophe, the first thing we focused on is saving lives, prioritizing those lives. Every minute, every hour counts. And that's what Chief Nim Kidd focused on, what the local officials focused on, what the State focused on, but also what your administration did. On the very day of the flood, you know, the Coast Guard literally saving lives right and left. And we cannot thank you enough for deploying the Coast Guard, deploying the resources.

And, as you pointed out, immediately, when I made a request for a disaster declaration, you and your administration granted that. This is the fastest, that I'm aware of, of any administration responding so swiftly, so collaboratively, so coordinated as we have in response to this.

Thank you for that major disaster declaration. It ensures that we're going to be able to more effectively respond and help rebuild.

And let me make one thing clear about the Hunt Store. We will rebuild the Hunt Store very quickly right here in Hunt, Texas.

Mr. Dunn. Thank you, Governor.

Gov. Abbott. Also, I too want to thank all the first responders, and I—we have many of our legislators over here. I want to thank them for stepping up and being here constantly, as well as state officials who joined with us.

And as we have said before, we remain committed. We're here for the long run. Now, we'll maintain our operations to search and find everybody that we can, as well as ensure that we're going to rebuild this community. From Hunt to Camp Mystic to Kerrville down below, we are committed for the long run, not just to rebuild, but to rebuild in a better way.

I have received a lot of detail, even from the President himself, about ways that we can do a better job in the rebuilding process, and we will put all of that to work.

We have a special session beginning in 10 days, when we're going to start working legislatively to make sure that we address every challenge that the people of this entire region, including the Central Texas region—make sure we help rebuild the families and communities of all of them.

But we would not have been able to do that the way that we have had it not been for you, your commitment to Texas. I know you love Texas.

The President. I do.

Gov. Abbott. And Texas loves you. We appreciate you showing up, and because of your swift and effective response, we're better positioned to deliver on all those commitments than ever before.

The President. Thank you, Governor. That's very nice. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Kristi, would you like to say something? Fantastic job you've done.

Secretary Noem. Well, Mr. President, I just want to thank you for coming and being here today, and to our First Lady as well. Your heart is evident for the people of Texas and by you coming here and spending the day and taking the time to spend so much time with the families.

[Secretary Noem continued her remarks, concluding as follows.]

The Coast Guard and the Border Patrol were absolute amazing resources on the ground immediately, and we've had over 700 different FEMA employees and volunteers——

The President. Right.

Secretary Noem. ——here as well that are engaged. And so all of your assets that you have as a Federal Government are deployed to help this community restore but also to heal.

I would just ask everybody in the room to remember to love on each other, too, and to tell stories and memories and—of—that's how—the greatest fear when you lose someone in your life is that people will forget them. So tell the stories that you knew, and write them down and remember them, because nobody wants their loved one that they don't have any more to ever be forgotten.

The President. Thanks, Kristi.

Secretary Noem. [Inaudible]

The President. Appreciate it.

Nim, would you say a few words, please.

Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief W. Nim Kidd. Thank you, Mr. President. [Inaudible]

The President. You've done a fantastic job working with Kristi and everybody else. Thank you.

Chief Kidd. Yes, sir.

The President. Go ahead.

Chief Kidd. Thank you both for being here.

I—our hearts are broken, but they fuel the engine that drives this response for this community.

These local first responders are the best in the Nation. They put their lives on the line—our volunteer firefighters that were out there putting their lives on the line, knowing that their homes were at risk. You have the best in the nation right here at the local level.

Governor Abbott declared 21 Texas counties, for this weather, event under a state of disaster declaration.

The President. That's—[inaudible].

Chief Kidd. Your immediate declaration for individual assistance and public assistance will help us rebuild and recover. We've had over 2,200 State agency response personnel assisting our local government partners.

But, Mr. President, here's a staggering number: Over 12,300 volunteers have shown up here out of love to support this community. Just imagine working 10 hours a day, 7 days into this event right now. That's over 861,000 hours——

The President. Yes.

Chief Kidd. ——of volunteer support right here. Nineteen other States have sent resources to us. Secretary Noem, thank you for the coordination and the effort on that. Your team has been phenomenal. We will continue the search nonstop, we will continue debris removal, and we will help this community rebuild.

We're ready, sir.

The President. Thank you very—really great job you've done, and the coordination has been incredible with us and everybody else. Thank you very much.

Chief Kidd. Yes, sir.

The President. Dr. Phil, I see you sitting there, and this might be a time for you to give us some of your words of wisdom, if you would. Thank you.

Dr. McGraw. Well, thank you.

I would—I've talked to families and survivors, parents and grandparents. And the truth is, we know, psychologically, that the number one stressor that we can experience in life is the loss of a child. And the worst situation that we can experience that is when it's sudden and when it's violent. That's the worst thing that can happen, stress wise, in life.

And you know, it's—people say, "Well, you know, you get over it in time." You will—the truth is, you never get over it. You get through it. And one of the things Secretary Noem was just talking about—no truer words could be said—that it's cathartic to talk about this.

And there's a collective consciousness in these communities down here. This is my country here. Texas is home for me.

The President. Right.

Dr. McGraw. And there's a collective consciousness here. And everybody in these communities suffered this loss at some level, and so everybody shares that, and so everybody shares the healing. And that will come through here. Everybody will rally together.

[Dr. McGraw continued his remarks, concluding as follows.]

And it's so inspiring for you and the First Lady to come here and share this and see the fiber of these communities. That's why they rally around you and everything that—that you stand for here, from the border to the disasters. And it's not just a photo op for you to be here. People see your heart and believe in what you stand for. And God bless you for coming here and doing this.

The President. Thank you, Phil.

Dr. McGraw. It means a lot. God bless you.

The President. Thank you. That was really beautiful. I'm glad we—I'm glad I asked him to say a few words, Dan.

Do you want to say a couple of words, Dan? Please. Lieutenant Governor.

Dr. McGraw. We spoke the morning, immediately. You and I talked the very next morning.

Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick of Texas. Mm-hmm.

Dr. McGraw. And he was right there.

Lt. Gov. Patrick. First of all, Mr. President, First Lady, a long time ago, I asked a pastor, when I was going to see a hospital—a person in the hospital who was—didn't have long to live, and I said, "What do I say?" And they said: "Don't worry about what you say. Just be there." So you and Madam First Lady, the two of you being here sends a message, it paints a picture that words can't express, and it gives them hope.

And the people of this community have become a family. I didn't know the mayor last week. I wish I didn't know him today under these circumstances. But we've become a family around this room, and it starts with you at the top, down to the governor, down to the statewides, down to the Secretary. I mean, Kristi Noem coming in—she called Saturday morning and said, "The president wants me to be there today," and she came. And so that message is so important.

Two things will get us through: our faith. So the people in—along this river are not standing on the rock of the banks of the river. They're standing on the rock of their faith, and that will get them through the struggles that you talk about. But you and the Federal Government will help us get through everything—all the debris that has to be taken——

The President. We will.

Lt. Gov. Patrick. ——all the rebuilding. And I know we can count on you.

So, from the bottom of my heart, on behalf of all these families, thank you for being here. It—you just can't measure how much it means to them.

The President. Well, thank you very much, Dan.

Lt. Gov. Patrick. Thank you.

The President. Great job. Appreciate it.

Do you want to take a couple of questions, Governor? Would you want to do that? Do you want to—

Gov. Abbott. Sure.

The President. Is the press going to be respectful of this event—this horrible event, this horrible tragedy?

Please, yes. Go ahead, please.

Emergency Alert Communication System

Q. Mr. President, Marissa Armas here with CBS News Texas. Several families we've heard from are obviously upset because they say that those warnings, those alerts didn't go out in time, and they also say that people could have been saved. What do you say to those families?

The President. Well, I think everyone did an incredible job under the circumstances. This was—I guess, Kristi said—a 1 in 500, 1 in 1,000 years. And I just have admiration for the job that everybody did. There's just admiration.

The—only a bad person would ask a question like that, to be honest with you. I don't know who you are, but only a very evil person would ask a question like that.

I think this has been heroism. This has been incredible, really, the job you've all done. It's easy to sit back and say: "Oh, what could have happened here or there? You know, maybe we could have done something differently." This was a thing that—this has never happened before, and nobody has ever seen anything—I've never seen anything like this. I've gone to some real bad ones. I've never seen anything like this.

So I admire you, and I consider you heroes and heroine, and I think you've done an amazing job.

Brian [Brian Glenn, Real America's Voice], go ahead, please.

Flooding in Central Texas

Q. Yes. Thank you, Mr. President. If I could ask you, who was the first person to contact you to notify you that this tragedy was unfolding?

The President. Probably Kristi, but I was notified by a lot. And Chip called also. Chip was here for—he thought it was going to be a little flood. He was going to miss the signing for the "Big Beautiful Bill," and he called to apologize. He said he's going to be delayed because of a little flood, and the little flood turned out to be the biggest flood anyone has ever seen.

So Chip and—but Kristi called right away. She was there. I looked—I looked the next morning. She was right there, on the ball. So——

Q. I just want to say, as a native Texan, I've received hundreds of messages. I told you that the other day, but I want to tell our representatives that are here in the crowd today. Thank you for your response. This is Texas Strong. President Trump, this is "America first" policy in terms to responding to a tragedy like this. Thank you, on behalf of Texas, as well.

The President. Thank you very much. Well, that's a nice reporter. That's a nice question. That's a nice—but I like his statement even better. Thank you very much, Brian. That's very nice.

Yeah, please. Go ahead.

Q. Great to see you, President Trump.

The President. Thank you.

Democratic Party/Disaster Response Efforts

Q. And thank you, First Lady Melania, from being here. I'm born and raised in Texas, and there's not a person in our State who hasn't been impacted by this tragedy. But what's been so disheartening recently are these ghouls on the left, like Jasmine Crockett, and the left-wing media who want to point fingers and play partisan games and fundraise off of this crisis. And what I love about Texas is we come together in a crisis across party lines, ideological lines.

So what is your message—and maybe Governor Abbott as well—to these folks on the left who are using this to gain partisan points in viral videos?

The President. Well, I'll start off by just saying, you know, they've—they've lost their confidence. They've had a tremendous run of bad talent—I don't say bad luck; I say bad talent—and all they want to do is criticize. And I hope we can someday be bipartisan, but all they like to do is criticize.

And this was—they're getting just absolutely clobbered, because everyone sees what an incredible job the Governor did. The—everybody in this room—everybody at this table, in particular, but everybody in this room did an incredible job, and the public knows it. You know, the public is wise to it.

They have automatic—they have their sound bite. They send out a sound bite, and it's supposed to be—you know, you're supposed to say that, and if you don't say that, they throw you out of the party.

No, they've lost—honestly, they've lost their confidence. I see some of the people they're putting forward, and those people will only ruin our Nation.

Our Nation, a year ago, was dead, and it was going down, but it was dead. And now we have the most successful nation anywhere in the world. You take a look.

I was with the King of Saudi Arabia. I was with the leaders of the world recently at NATO. Every one of them said the same thing. They said: "You know, it's the most amazing thing I've ever seen. Your nation was dead 1 year ago, and now you have the hottest nation. It's the hottest nation"—"hottest," in quotes. "It's the hottest nation anywhere in the world. The—every leader is saying that.

We are. We're the hottest nation in the world. We've all gotten together. We've done a great job. This State has been unbelievable. I work so well with the Governor and with your Senators and with everybody in this State. We just—we get it done.

We've had some pretty big problems here, with the floods and all the different things that we've worked out. And we respond very quickly, and they respond very quickly. And they spend their money wisely. You know, we give them a lot of money, but they spend it wisely. I can't say that's true always. Sometimes we give money, and they don't spend it so wisely. They spend it very, very foolishly.

So, Governor, do you want to say a few words?

Gov. Abbott. Sure, yes. One thing that you pointed out that we all know about Texans—it's part of our bloodstream—and that is, we're Texas tough. We're made for challenges.

I read a piece the other day I'll just quote one line from, and that is: When the rivers rise, so do we, and we rise to the occasion. And the way that we do that is by everybody working together.

We are one team united. We are Texans. And fighting as Texans, we're going to rebuild not just Kerrville or Hunt or Kerr County, but across the entire State, across regions. We're going to come together and fight together and ensure that we elevate even better, keeping foremost in mind exactly what Dr. Phil was talking about. As we rebuild, we've got to constantly comfort the families of those who have suffered a loss. Those two things combined. And we will be our quintessential selves, and that is Texas tough, Texas resilient.

The President. Thank you very much.

Representative Charles E. "Chip" Roy. Mr.——

The President. Go ahead, sir.

Rep. Roy. Mr. President, first of all——

The President. In the blue. The blue shirt.

Rep. Roy. ——thank you for—Mr.——

The President. No, right over here. Go ahead.

Q. I'll wait for Chip. He's my Representative. I'll wait for him.

Rep. Roy. Mr. President, if I—if I could just jump in and just say one thing——

The President. Chip.

Rep. Roy. ——which is: I can't thank you enough. When—when I called you on Friday, you said, "Whatever you need." When I called the Secretary's office, she called me within 15 minutes and said, "Whatever you need." And then she came here this weekend. I've never seen such a quick response and such a focus on delivering for the people.

[Rep. Roy continued his remarks, concluding as follows.]

The people in this community rallied around to help people. And that's the enduring image: those little girls from Camp Mystic who were singing hymns as they watched the damage, as they left that camp, coming out of there. And that's who the people of Texas are.

And I thank you, Mr. President.

The President. Thank you very much. And you know, two words: unity and competence. If you were to ask me two words that I've seen here, one is unity. The unity has been unbelievable. And then the competence—the competence of the Coast Guard and some of the people within the Coast Guard that saved a lot of lives. They went out and they saved a lot of lives. But there were others other than the Coast Guard.

But I would say competence and unity. The way everyone has just pulled together, it's rare that you see this.

Q. Mr. President——

The President. Again, I've been to so many, and I've seen bickering and fighting and, you know, just—it doesn't work the same way. This has been amazing. This is—and this is the biggest, because I've never seen one like this. Neither has anybody else, by the way.

Yes, please. Yes.

Emergency Alert Communication System/Disaster Response Efforts

Q. It's Joe Pags, Mr. President. It's been a while since we've seen each other.

Obviously, the staffing was where it needed to be. In fact, it was heavier than it should have been because of the holiday weekend. Whatever they're saying in the left news isn't the truth. You're a developer though. At 1 o'clock in the morning, the technology only goes as far as it goes. Kids don't have their phones. Phones are dead. People by the riverside don't have electricity. They're not going to get a phone alert that way.

As a developer, going forward, knowing that everything was done lightning fast by Secretary Noem, by you, by the Governor, and everybody else—you did everything right—what do we do next time, though, to make sure that people are alerted if they're dead asleep? Maybe an alarm system. Maybe a siren system. You might know better than I. But what do we do going forward? Because we've got to make sure that people get the alert when it's time to get the alert.

Thank you.

The President. Yes. You'll probably have to do that. You'll probably come up with something very unique, because there is no system right now. There's been no—this has not—a thing like this has never happened, that anybody knows. Certainly, not to this extent. But I know the Governor and everybody is working on it. They're meeting, and they'll figure something out.

Go ahead, Governor.

Gov. Abbott. Yes. So we begin a session in 10 days. We will address every single question that you just asked. You mentioned some of the ideas. There are many more. And we want to hear—most importantly, we have to devise a response that's right for this community, and this community has to weigh in, and they need time to be able to convey that to us.

But we're going to we're going to work on alerts. We're going to work on every single solution to make sure things like this don't happen again, not just in this community, but in other river basins across the state also.

So we will work to get it right. And we've jotted down, Joe, every idea that you just mentioned.

The President. Ted Cruz. Go ahead, please, Ted.

Senator R. Edward "Ted" Cruz. Well, Mr. President, I want to say thank you for being here. First Lady, thank you for being here.

Where we are right now, the Hill Country, is a very special part of this State. It is universally considered the most beautiful part of the state. You've got rolling hills. You've got these incredible, peaceful, wonderful rivers. The Guadalupe River, just about all of us have been swimming in that river, floating in that river.

[Senator Cruz continued his remarks, concluding as follows.]

So we are grateful for the response, Governor, the first responders—everyone who's come together. And to all the moms and dads, just know we love you. The agony—my street at home, every house has a green ribbon around it for the girls at Mystic. And that's true in a lot of streets all throughout Texas. And we will come through this, one way or the other.

And I'll tell you the Hunt Store right now—the sign says "Hunt Store," except today, it doesn't. It says "Hunt Strong." They redid the sign. That's the spirit of who we are.

The President. Thank you, Ted, very much.

Lt. Gov. Patrick. Mr. President——

The President. Well—yes, please.

Lt. Gov. Patrick. I wanted to respond just to something that Joe Pags said and the Governor. The speaker and I announced yesterday that we will begin our hearings in 2 weeks, but in 3 weeks, we're going to have a hearing in this room so that the residents and the people in this area don't have to come to Austin. We're going to come to them, and we'll stay here as long as it takes to hear their stories and their needs and their wants.

So we're going to be here in 3 weeks, in this room——

The President. Good, Dan.

Lt. Gov. Patrick. ——to hear from them.

The President. Very good.

Well, I just want to thank everybody for coming together—and the word "unity" again. But I just want to thank you very much.

And we'll be helping you from Washington, DC, like no other President would do. Nobody else would do it. Nobody else would be even—get back to you. You know, you're fully funded, as you know.

And, Kristi, I would say they were fully funded within minutes of hearing about this.

And you know, the State of Texas, number one, they do it right, and they've done it right for a long time. And it's, you know, a very special place to me. I will tell you that. Politically—I don't want to say "politics," but politically, it's been a very special place to me.

Our great Secretary of Agriculture, who—you've done such a great job, Brooke Rollins. You come from Texas, and I just want to thank you.

She even got the cost of eggs right down. You know, they hit me with that one, and she got them down so quickly, nobody knew what—by Easter, everybody was having eggs at a lower price than they ever thought possible. But you've done a fantastic job.

But it's just been a special—it's been a very special State to me, and it's my honor. And we will continue to work together, and we'll—it's a bad situation, and you can never say, "Oh, it's going to be bigger, better, stronger." It—you know, it's just—so many lives have been lost, you can't say that.

But we're going to make it back. We're going to make it back, and we're going to make it good again. And everybody wants to do it.

And I just want to thank you, and I want to congratulate you. You guys have been unbelievable. Thank you for your words before. It was unbelievable, the job you've done, Kim [Nim; White House correction], everybody, every single one of you. So you should be very proud, and we're very proud of you.

Thank you all very much for doing such a good job. Thank you very much. Thank you.