U.S. President set to declare Major Disaster in Texas
Joe Biden, the President of the United States, told reporters on Friday that planned to visit Texas because the state remains locked in the throes of a days-long freeze. The situation brought the water and power systems of the state to their knees and endangered millions of citizens. Biden said after delivering a virtual address to the Munich Security Conference that he plans ongoing. Further, he adds that he plans to visit Texas next week because he intends to lessen the logistical burden that accompanies any presidential visit on previously strained resources in the state.
Biden said that he doesn’t want to be a burden on the administration. When any U.S. president lands in a city in America, it has a long tail. The Democratic president also said that he planned to sign a major disaster declaration for Texas as soon as Friday afternoon and that he spoke to Governor Greg Abbott on Thursday night about the worst situation in the state. Previously, Abbott requested the declaration in Texas during his conversation with Biden.
In a phone call with acting Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Bob Fenton, Biden said that he was ready to activate other federal agencies to handle the situation in Texas, according to a White House statistic of the call released on Friday. Biden told Fenton that he would surely sign the major disaster declaration as early as FEMA sent over the request. Earlier this week, the president signed a separate emergency declaration as the Texas crisis was unfolding; however, that one had an economic cap on the amount of aid the federal officials could provide.
U.S. President set to declare Major Disaster in Texas Source: Web
What Benefits Texas can get in case of declaring a major Disaster
After declaring a major disaster in Texas frees up the government to provide more relief. Much of Texas state is facing blackouts and water outages as the utilities of the state were unable to fulfill the rise in demand after the devastating winter storm. Moreover, the storm brought sub-freezing temperatures and snow to a state unusual to such weather.
Several people died because of carbon monoxide poisoning, hypothermia, and other causes related to the extreme weather. Senator Ted Cruz faced huge criticism for going to Mexico with his family this week while leaving millions of Texans in crisis. Later, he apologized for his decision and cut short his trip, and returned to Texas from his brief trip to Cancun on Thursday. He also called his trip a mistake.
