Trump says he’s sending Texas $50.5 million for storm recovery — no word on what it covers
The obvious question locally: does this have anything to do with the flooding that hit Kerrville and the rest of the Hill Country in July?
President Donald Trump said Monday night he’s sending Texas $50.5 million for storm recovery, but his announcement left unanswered basic questions about what disaster the money is tied to, which programs will distribute it, or whether Kerr County will see any of it.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he’d told Gov. Greg Abbott “that I am sending 50.5 Million Dollars to assist recovery efforts” from “the severe storms, winds, tornadoes, and flooding” that hit Texas. The announcement came wrapped in a broader post touting Trump’s endorsements of Abbott’s reelection bid, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Ken Paxton’s U.S. Senate campaign.
The obvious question locally: does this have anything to do with the flooding that hit Kerrville and the rest of the Hill Country in July?
As of late August, the answer looked like no. A Texas Tribune analysis published Aug. 28 found the Trump administration still hadn’t approved the Major Disaster Declaration Abbott requested July 17 for 28 counties — Kerr included — after the July 12-16 flooding. That’s the declaration that would unlock FEMA Individual Assistance for residents and Public Assistance for local governments. Only a narrower emergency declaration, typically capped around $5 million, had come through, on July 18. Abbott’s request put the statewide cost of responding to the flooding at $489.7 million.
The $50.5 million figure doesn’t line up cleanly with that number, or with the roughly $56.5 million statewide Public Assistance threshold, or with the $25.5 million in damage Abbott’s office specifically estimated for the 10 counties — Kerr among them — hit by both the 2025 and 2026 floods.
That leaves a few possibilities: the money could be part of the long-delayed Major Disaster Declaration finally clearing, a narrower FEMA obligation tied to a specific program, or unrelated to the July flood here altogether — Trump has used similar “severe storms and tornadoes” language before when announcing recovery funds for other states after different disasters.
Neither the White House nor Abbott’s office had released details on what the money covers as of this writing. The Lead will update this story as more information becomes available.
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