President Joe Biden said a disaster declaration was delayed because he had trouble contacting Abbott and his lieutenant governor.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has come under fire on social media over his response to Hurricane Beryl, which crashed into the southeastern United States on Monday as a Category 1 hurricane leaving six dead in Texas, and one in Louisiana, according to The Associated Press.
The storm caused widespread damage across Texas with the Houston area, where millions of people lost power, particularly badly affected. As of Tuesday just under 1.7 million CenterPoint customers remained without power according to The Houston Chronicle.
Abbott is currently on an economic development tour of Asia and was in South Korea on Monday when the hurricane struck Texas. Consequently Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick has been overseeing the response on the ground as acting governor.
The governor shared a post on X, formerly Twitter, indicating he was in Seoul, in the early hours of Monday morning Texas time. According to CBS Austin, the timing of the post was criticized by some one social media. Others on social media, Newsweek found, denounced the timing of the overseas trip itself. Abbott is scheduled to return to Texas on Saturday.
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden approved a major disaster declaration for Texas in response to the hurricane, unlocking additional federal resources, and pledged: “We will be with the people of Texas for as long as it takes to recover.”
However, speaking to The Houston Chronicle, Biden said the disaster declaration was delayed as a result of difficulties he had contacting the Texas governor and lieutenant governor, something they both denied.
Referring to the disaster declaration, Biden said: “I’ve been trying to track down the governor.I don’t have any authority to do that without a specific request from the governor.
