At least 19 Texas counties will receive federal funding to repair infrastructure damaged by major July flooding in southwest Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Thursday.<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump approved a major disaster declaration to open up the much-awaited Federal Emergency Management Agency public funding, including for Uvalde, Zavala and Kerr counties, Abbott said. A request for funding was still pending for nine more counties that sustained flood damage.<\/p>\n
Trump also hadn\u2019t made a decision yet on a request to help individuals in those counties with disaster-related costs, such as for temporary housing and initial home repairs.<\/p>\n
\u201cLocal officials will now have needed resources to recover and rebuild,\u201d Abbott said in a statement. \u201cTexas will deliver every available resource to affected communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Trump said in a Truth social\u00a0post<\/a>\u00a0that Texas would receive $50.5 million in disaster recovery assistance \u201cfrom the severe storms, winds, tornadoes, and flooding that hit them hard.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump didn\u2019t specify which storms he meant: His 5:42 p.m. post went up just hours after Tropical Storm Edouard\u00a0made landfall<\/a>\u00a0near the Texas-Louisiana border and was pushing inland into southeast Texas.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s announced funding was still only a fraction of Gov. Greg Abbott\u2019s initial estimate of $489.7 million in costs from the July storms, which Abbott\u00a0cited in his first ask for<\/a>\u00a0federal help to aid state and local governments for debris removal and restoring infrastructure such as roads, buildings and parks.<\/p>\n Before Tuesday\u2019s post, Trump had only approved limited federal emergency assistance so far for those floods, which is\u00a0typically<\/a>\u00a0capped at $5 million.<\/p>\n FEMA did not respond to a request for comment. The agency issued a news release Thursday announcing the public assistance funding, which will also be available to the state government.<\/p>\n SEE RELATED: ‘Where are all the volunteers?’ Kerr County faces worse flood damage with fewer resources<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cTexas is a special place, and I will be back soon to support Governor Abbott, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, Ken Paxton for U.S. Senate, and the entire ticket of Republican Candidates, who have my Complete and Total Endorsement,\u201d Trump wrote in the post.<\/p>\n The Texas Tribune\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0Friday that more than six weeks after the severe July flooding, residents and local governments were still waiting on major recovery funding from FEMA to help with short-term individual needs and more permanent infrastructure repairs. The areas harmed included Kerr County, which was struck by deadly flooding in 2025 and still building back from that when the 2026 flooding hit.<\/p>\n Research by Andrew Rumbach, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, has shown that major federal disaster funding decisions are taking roughly three times longer on average under the current administration than under previous administrations since 2000, when the typical wait was about three weeks.<\/p>\n