Flooding in the State of Texas
Floor Speech
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Mr. WEBER of Texas. I thank my good friend, Congressman Green from Houston, for yielding to me. I appreciate that. He is the consummate gentleman. I appreciate him lining this up and helping us to draw attention to it.
Mr. Speaker, all the recent rains in Texas have devastated parts of up to 31 counties in our beloved State. Governor Greg Abbott has declared them a disaster area. I happen to represent the lower half of Brazoria County, from the south side of Alvin going south, and it has been the recipient of a lot of flooding.
On Monday, I toured the Emergency Management Office Command Center in Angleton, Texas, which is the county seat for Brazoria County. I was privileged to meet with County Judge Matt Sebesta and others as I was introduced to the Brazoria County first responders working night and day to take care of our citizens, our citizens' animals and their livestock, and their property as much as we could.
I was also privileged, Mr. Speaker, to go up in a Texas DPS helicopter with two of our great Department of Public Safety pilots. Wow. What devastation, Congressman Green, in Brazoria County. I have pictures on my iPhone. I mean, it is just unbelievable the flooded areas. The devastation and destruction is astounding. Waters from the Brazos River, the San Bernard, and other creeks and bayous are out of their banks and wreaking havoc in our area.
Mr. Speaker, I want my constituents to know that our office is already on the ground in the area, already working to ensure that FEMA is in gear, and that our constituents are taken care of. I would like to give a shout out to my great staff, Ms. Dodie Armstrong, Ms. Carmen Galvan, and Jed Webb, who have been on the ground there at the Emergency Management Center monitoring this almost night and day and interfacing with the county to provide them any assistance needed. We have assured Brazoria County that anything we can do, as my good friend Joaquin Castro was saying, from our end to assist, we would be glad to do that.
Let me just add that we, too, mourn the loss of the Fort Hood soldiers. Our thoughts and prayers go out to them and their families.
Mr. Speaker, we will bounce back from this. Our great Brazoria County first responders are on top of the situation, and our great Brazoria County folks are resilient. I have to say that about Congressman Green's Houston constituents as well, our Texas people.
I have lived on the Gulf Coast of Texas almost 63 years. In fact, it will be 63 years this July 2nd coming up. I have seen nothing quite of this magnitude in flooding in our area, but I have seen a lot of hurricanes, a lot of disasters. Texans are a resilient people. They are going to need our help. They are going to need our prayers. They are going to need some time to heal and get back to business as usual.
I want to say, again, thank you to my good friend, Al Green from Houston, for setting this up in a very bipartisan way. We just appreciate that.
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