President Trump and Melania Trump were set on Friday to travel to an area of Texas devastated by last weekend’s extreme flash flooding, which left more than 120 people dead.
The president and the first lady were expected to spend a few hours in the state to meet with emergency workers and survivors, and to see some of the disaster sites along the Guadalupe River in Central Texas, near Kerrville, which has become a hub for search and recovery work.
Mr. Trump announced his intention to visit earlier in the week, but said he wanted to wait until enough time had passed because “we don’t want to get in anyone’s way.”
The president has described the flood in Texas as an unavoidable act of nature — “a hundred-year catastrophe,” as he put it — but his administration has faced intense scrutiny over its level of preparedness and response, including concerns over unfilled positions at local National Weather Service offices and troubles at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Mr. Trump has talked of pulping FEMA since he came into office. The agency has lost about a quarter of its staff, including some of its most experienced officials. It is housed under the Department of Homeland Security.
At the direction of Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, FEMA instituted a policy requiring all expenses over $100,000 — including the deployment of search-and-rescue teams — to be approved directly by Ms. Noem. Questions have been raised about whether Ms. Noem’s decision contributed to delays in emergency relief.
At a cabinet meeting at the White House on Tuesday, Mr. Trump praised FEMA’s work, and Ms. Noem said that the agency was stronger under the current administration.
“FEMA has been deployed, and we’re cutting through the paperwork of the old FEMA, streamlining it much like your vision of how FEMA should operate,” she said. “It’s been a much better response to help these families get through this terrible situation.”
But Ms. Noem added that there was an urgent need to continue search and rescue operations.
Officials said more than 170 people were unaccounted after the flooding. Twenty-seven campers and staff members were reported dead, and several were still missing at Camp Mystic, a girls summer camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River.
“We’re still looking for a lot of little girls and other family members that were camping along that river,” Ms. Noem said.
Shawn McCreesh is a White House reporter for The Times covering the Trump administration.
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