President Trump said the response to Hurricane Irma, which he called “some big monster,” is going “really well” as he returned to the White House on Sunday after huddling with Cabinet members and administration officials at Camp David over the weekend.
“I think it’s been going really well. It’s a rough hurricane. … The Coast Guard has been amazing already. You’ve been hearing what they’re doing right in the middle of the storm. FEMA has been incredible. We’re working very well with the governor and the other governors in the surrounding states,” he told reporters as he arrived on the South Lawn.
“Every group is coordinating really well. The bad news is this is some big monster, but I think we’re very well put,” Trump said, adding that he would be going to Florida “very soon.”
Earlier, Trump and the White House officials – Vice President Pence, Chief of Staff John Kelly, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney – received a “comprehensive update” on the storm that made landfall Sunday morning in the Florida Keys.
Trump was briefed on the “the status of Hurricane Irma, forecasted path, evacuations, preparation for response and recovery,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.
The group also received a briefing via a teleconference from acting secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke, Homeland Security Adviser Thomas Bossert and Federal Emergency Management Agency head Brock Long.
Pence and several Cabinet secretaries later visited FEMA, where the vice president called the storm “historic and epic.”
Trump spoke to the governors of Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee – states that are expected to feel Irma’s effects over the next several days.
He talked to Gov. Rick Scott of Florida, where Irma came ashore as a category 4 storm with winds up to 130 mph.
”So I talked to the president. I’ve talked to him almost every day. I think almost every Cabinet member called me once a day from the administration just making sure we have all the resources,” Scott said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “He wanted to make sure we had all the resources. He said he was Long said he had been in constant communication with the commander-in-chief.
“The president said: ‘Do everything you can to take care of people.’ And that’s what we’re doing,” Long said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Florida Sen. Bill Nelson gave a shout out to emergency response agencies for their handling of the hurricane.
“And there is the cooperation between the federal level, the state, and the locals. That has been seamless cooperation, unlike 25 years ago in Hurricane Andrew, when you did not have that cooperation, unlike even Katrina, when you didn’t have the cooperation and the communication between the Louisiana National Guard and the U.S. military. That has been taken care of now,” the Democrat said on CBS.
With Marisa Schultz
