President Trump to visit Texas, Louisiana Saturday to survey Hurricane Laura damage
President Donald Trump will travel to Texas on Saturday to visit people affected by Hurricane Laura, the White House said.
Southeast Texas (KXAN/AP) — President Donald Trump will travel to Texas on Saturday to visit people affected by Hurricane Laura, the White House said.
The president will visit Louisiana as well as Texas. He is expected to survey storm damage and receive briefings about emergency operations and relief efforts.
Trump told reporters he considered delaying his Thursday night speech accepting the Republican Party nomination for reelection due to the storm.
“It turned out, we got a little bit lucky,” he said. “It was very big, it was very powerful, but it passed quickly.”
The death toll from Hurricane Laura stands at 14, with most of those people killed by carbon monoxide poisoning from the unsafe operation of generators.
Though the storm has passed, problems persist – with some residents on the Louisiana coast set to be without power or water for weeks.
In Texas, a mandatory evacuation was ordered in Galveston, but the area was largely spared by the hurricane.
Evacuees from the coast were taken to Austin, where a temporary shelter site was set up at the Circuit of the Americas. On arrival, people were given hotel vouchers and Austin hotels quickly hit capacity.
People began to head home from Central Texas on Friday.
Buses began to arrive at the racetrack starting at 6 a.m. on Friday. A KXAN photographer saw people loading personal protective equipment and water onto the buses.