Noem praises the response of the floods of Texas as a model for the reform of Trump’s FEMA

Internal security secretary Kristi Noem said on Saturday that the federal response to the murderous floods of Texas Hill Country last weekend was a good indication of improving the response to disasters that the Trump administration is committed to providing.

Devastating floods on July 4 have made at least 119 lives, and more than 150 other people are missing. Among the people killed, 27 girls attended the mystical camp along the Guadalupe river in Hunt, Texas.

“What you have seen from our response to Texas will be a large part of how President (Donald) Trump is considering what (emergency management fema) would look like in the future,” said Noem at a press conference on Saturday.

“We have done things in Texas, in response, very different from Joe Biden.”

DHS secretary, Kristi Noem, and Governor Greg Abbott discuss the ongoing efforts with recent floods along the Guadalupe river during a press conference in Ingram, Texas, on July 5. (AP photo / Rodolfo Gonzalez)

President Trump, First Lady, heads to Kerrville, Texas after fatal floods

In response to the derailment of the Ohio 2023 train in eastern Palestine, the Biden administration said that the chemical disaster did not meet legal requirements for a FEMA disaster declaration, waiting for two weeks to deploy a team to help.

In MAUI fires in 2023, more than 100 people were killed and the historic Lahaina was reduced to rubble. The survivors were left without food, water and shelter.

At the time, the administrator of FEMA, Michael Brown, called the president Joe Biden Response to fatal fires “an abject failure”.

The displaced residents Caroline Anthony and Lori Brodeur on a break by looking for personal objects in the rubble of a forest fire which destroyed their house on October 5, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii. (Mario Tama / Getty Images)

Slow responses and inadequate aid were also widely reported after Hurricane Helene struck North Carolina, Georgia and South Carolina at the end of 2024.

“I will also sign a decree to start the reform process fundamentally and Revision of FEMA Or maybe get rid of FEMA, “said Trump in January by visiting North Carolina.” I think, frankly, the fema is not good. “”

The Mortel of Texas Flood exposes the “neglected” weather alert system that Trump aims to modernize

The research and rescue teams work in Kerrville, Texas, July 9. (Derek trembled for Fox News Digital)

Noem noted that, during the most recent disaster, federal aid was on the ground in Texas as soon as the floods struck.

“We have deployed our coastal guard teams, our helicopters (planes) and our fast water rescue teams outside of customs and border protection,” she said. “Our teams (Border Patrol Tactical Unit) (BORTAC), which I like to call the ninjas of the Ministry of Internal Security, are specifically formed for situations like this, where unprecedented people occur.”

After the floods, Noem said that she had immediately met the Governor of Texas. Greg Abbott And told him about the signing of a major declaration in the event of a disaster.

In less than an hour or two of the request, she said, it was approved by the White House.

President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump and the Governor of Texas Greg Abbott meet the local staff of the emergency services as they question the flood damage along the Guadalupe river on Friday in Kerrville, Texas. (SOMODEVILLA / GETTY Images)

“We have predefined dollars directly in Texas so that they can make the best decisions by responding to their people,” said Noem. “FEMA has never done this before – dollars pre -deployed to a state so that they can use it to save their people, so that they can use it to go out and save lives.”

Noem said the president wanted the states to be empowered in an emergency.

Gov. Abbott requires a complete overhaul of the Texas flood alert systems as the number of deaths increases

“Emergencies are executed locally,” she said. “They are managed by the state, then the federal government comes into play and supports you. (No one) never wants to sit and wait for someone to the federal government presents itself and save you from your home because, in the past, people have not served people under the Biden administration.

Under President Trump, Noem said, federal officials were there immediately to help local officials and the United States manage the response.

Several victims of the Texas floods were confirmed dead by families, including some of the girls who disappeared from the Mystic camp when the Guadalupe river flooded on July 4. (Fox News)

She added her conviction that FEMA “will cease to exist as it is today”.

“We fundamentally reform this agency,” said Noem. “The President Trump may want, in his prerogative, as he does, rename things. He can find a new name for this agency which reflects the fundamental change that will occur there. But this agency will no longer be the bureaucratic agency where people have to wait 20 years for their complaint to be paid.

“It will be an agency that immediately says to this state, and to this local emergency management director:” What do you need? How can we support you? “And then leads them to have the skills they need to serve their people immediately, because they are still there faster.

We do not know what could be the name of the new agency name.

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump listened to during a round table with the first speakers and local officials of the Hill Country Youth Event Center in Kerrville, Texas, after watching flood damage on Friday. (AP photo / Jacquelyn Martin)

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Asked about reports on the FEMA calls for unanswered Texas residents, Noem said that she “threw the bull —- flag”, saying that it did not think it was true.

“I’m going to get rid of any contract that does not respond to people because they know they are allowed to do so,” she said.

FEMA did not immediately respond to the request for comments from Fox News Digital.