Trump Cites ‘Happiness’ At Texas Shelter As Harvey Death Toll Climbs

President Donald Trump and Melania Trump pass out food and meet people impacted by Hurricane Harvey during a visit to the NRG Center in Houston, Saturday, Sept. 2, 2017. The Trumps will also make a stop in Lake Charles, La., to meet with people at an emergency operations center. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
President Donald Trump and Melania Trump pass out food and meet people impacted by Hurricane Harvey during a visit to the NRG Center in Houston, Saturday, Sept. 2, 2017. It was his second trip to Texas in a week, and... President Donald Trump and Melania Trump pass out food and meet people impacted by Hurricane Harvey during a visit to the NRG Center in Houston, Saturday, Sept. 2, 2017. It was his second trip to Texas in a week, and this time his first order of business was to meet with those affected by the record-setting rainfall and flooding. He’s also set to survey some of the damage and head to Lake Charles, Louisiana, another hard-hit area. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) MORE LESS
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President Donald Trump returned to the Houston area on Saturday to meet with survivors of Hurricane Harvey and participate in relief efforts—which he did not do during his first visit to the disaster-stricken region earlier this week.

In a visit to one of Houston’s designated emergency refuge areas, the NRG Center, Trump told reporters he is seeing “a lot of happiness.”

“It’s been really nice,” he said, according to the traveling press pool. “It’s been a wonderful thing. As tough as this was, it’s been a wonderful thing, I think even for the country to watch it and for the world to watch. It’s been beautiful.”

The president also said of the children he visited who had been displaced by the storm, “They’re doing great.”

When asked about the devastating flooding still covering much of the region, he replied: “The flooding? Oh, yeah, yeah, there’s a lot of water, but it’s leaving pretty quickly. But there’s a lot of water, a lot of water, but it’s moving out.”

While handing out meals to survivors of the flood, Trump paused to inform the press that his hands were too big for the sanitary plastic gloves.

Leaving the shelter, Trump told the survivors and gathered reporters to “have a good time.”

In a subsequent visit to the First Church of Pearland in the Houston suburbs, Trump reminded flood survivors that he had declared Sunday a national day of prayer.

“So go to your church and pray and enjoy the day,” he said.

Trump’s light-hearted tone contrasted sharply with reports from the ground, where the death toll continues to climb.

On Saturday morning, the AP reported, authorities found and elderly woman floating face-down in water in her flooded home in Port Arthur, Texas. Her death brings the count of Harvey’s fatalities to at least 47, a number that could increase exponentially as floodwaters recede in the coming days.

At least 75 local schools are too damaged by the storm to open this fall, meaning more than 10,000 school children will be displaced.

Additionally, dozens of toxic waste storage sites in the Houston area have flooded, raising fears that dangerous chemicals could spread around the region, contaminating local wildlife and the water supply.

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