ICYMI: Sen. Cruz: ‘Texans Are Coming Together And We’re Standing United’
Joins Texas radio hosts Mark Davis and Sam Malone to discuss ongoing rescue and recovery operations for those affected by Hurricane Harvey
HOUSTON, Texas – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today joined 660 AM The Answer’s Mark Davis and AM 1070's Sam Malone to discussed the ongoing rescue and recovery operations for those affected by Hurricane Harvey, the coordination of resources between the local, state and federal governments and his visit to flooded neighborhoods on an airboat near the Addicks Reservoir.
On the Mark Davis Show in Dallas, Sen. Cruz highlighted the ongoing successful coordination of resources between local, state and federal officials in Houston and South Texas:
“One of the things that has been really impressive also is the coordination between every level of government. Yesterday I went to the city council meeting, where the city council was gathered and passing emergency measures to deal with the flooding. And I just took an opportunity to thank the mayor, thank the members of the city council.”
Sen. Cruz continued, “And both [the city and county] are working hand in hand with the state and with the federal government. In fact I was sitting alongside Shelia Jackson Lee who is a very liberal Democrat. She and I disagree on a number of issues, and yet we were quite literally arm in arm because in the face of this disaster, Texans are coming together and we’re standing united. On any other day there are issues that divide us, but in the face of this devastation, we’ve come together as one and it makes us much stronger.”
On the Sam Malone show in Houston, Sen. Cruz expressed gratitude for the volunteers and relief workers serving flood victims at the George R. Brown Convention Center.
“Yesterday morning I was there serving breakfast, serving oatmeal to the people,” Sen. Cruz said. “We had 11,000 people who had lost their homes who were there overnight. Let me tell you something really encouraging, the fellow next to me who was helping serve oatmeal, I said to him as I try to say to a lot of the volunteers, ‘Thank you for being here, thank you for helping out.’ And he laughed and said ‘Well I didn’t have any choice, I was evacuated and my home is underwater.’ And so many of the volunteers helping are people who themselves need shelter. This entire crisis has been horrifying for our city and of the Gulf Coast. But it has been every minute, every hour a display of heroism, of Texans helping Texans.”
Sen. Cruz continued, “A couple days ago I was at the Harris County Emergency Command Center and there is an entire wall of Post-Its with the names of just individuals who called and said, ‘Hey, I’ve got a boat I can help.’ And it had their cell-phones, every Post-It had a different person. And in the midst of the worst moments of the storm the Emergency Command Center basically acted a dispatch where they would call one of the cell phones and say ‘Your neighbor six blocks down are in trouble; can you go get them?’ There were hundreds upon hundreds of people just rescuing people. Yesterday, up by Addicks [Reservoir], there were a bunch of boats, a bunch of guys, from all over, from Oklahoma, from Fort Worth, from Lubbock, from Louisiana we had the Cajun Navy that came in. I mean it has just been an outpouring of love.”
Audio from Sen. Cruz’s interviews may be found below:
