HOUSTON — As the effects of Hurricane Harvey continued to be felt from the Gulf Coast to the Midwest, President Trump visited Texas and Louisiana on Saturday for his second look at the devastated region.
Trump and first lady Melania Trump met with Harvey evacuees taking shelter at the NRG Center in Houston, as well as with volunteer relief workers, something they did not do during their first visit last week.
The Trumps spent time in an area designated for children and helped serve food. They also traveled to Lake Charles, La., to survey storm damage there and meet with emergency medical workers and members of the volunteer “Cajun Navy’’ that rescued stranded residents.
Trump threw his arms around storm survivors in the NRG Center, a convention building converted into a temporary shelter for 1,200 children and adults. He posed for selfies and hoisted one girl in his arms.
“There’s a lot of love. As tough as it’s been, it’s been a wonderful thing to watch,’’ Trump told reporters before heading into a room where he handed out cardboard boxes with hot dogs and potato chips to residents. “I’m going to do a little bit of help over here.’’
Trump has asked lawmakers for a $7.9 billion down payment toward Harvey relief and recovery efforts — a request expected to be swiftly approved by Congress, which returns to work Tuesday after its summer break.
Beaumont, Texas, the city that lost its drinking water system to Harvey’s floodwaters, struggled Saturday to restore service. In Houston, firefighters kept monitoring a crippled chemical plant that has twice been the scene of explosions and fires since the storm roared ashore and stalled over Texas more than a week ago.
Officials in Beaumont, with about 120,000 people, worked to repair their water treatment plant, which failed after the swollen Neches River inundated the main intake system and backup pumps failed.
The Army Corps of Engineers sent pumps, and an ExxonMobil team built and installed a temporary intake pipe in an effort to refill a city reservoir. Exxon has a refinery and chemical plants in Beaumont.
On Friday, people waited in a line that extended for more than a mile to get bottled water.
In Crosby, outside of Houston, authorities continued to monitor the Arkema plant where three trailers of highly unstable compounds ignited in recent days, sending thick black smoke and tall flames into the air.
A spokeswoman for the Harris County fire marshal said Saturday that there were no active fires at the facility, but six more trailers were being watched.
The remnants of the storm were fading fast as it moved into the Ohio Valley. National Weather Service meteorologists expect Harvey to break up and merge with other weather systems late Saturday or Sunday.
The soggy and battered city of Houston began burying its dead and taking steps toward the long recovery ahead. The school district said up to 12,000 students would be sent to different schools because of flood-damaged buildings.
The storm that is blamed for at least 46 deaths is believed to have damaged 156,000 dwellings in Harris County, which includes Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest city. Many Houston streets remain 4 or more feet underwater after being pelted by 50 or more inches of rain over the past week.
Kim Martinez, 28, waited Saturday for insurance adjusters to come to her Southbelt/Ellington neighborhood, a devastated middle-class area of southeast Houston.
The mother of two was hosting a watch party for the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor fight last Saturday when floodwaters forced about 15 people to the attic. They escaped the next day. Seven children were rescued by a neighbor’s boat.
The women and a 115-pound German shepherd used inflatable swim toys, and the men swam or waded through shoulder-high water.
‘‘You can be prepared for anything but not a monster storm like Harvey,’’ said her mother, Maria Martinez, 63.
Valerie Williams returned to her flood-damaged home to find mud covering the walls and everything but her dining room table destroyed.
‘‘People, they say, ‘We’re praying for you’ and stuff. Well, we appreciate the prayers. We really do. But what we need is assistance,’’ Williams said.
Not everyone is able to think about rebuilding yet. On Saturday, about 200 people waved signs and shouted as they rallied outside a still-flooded subdivision in the west Houston suburb of Katy, demanding answers about when they will be able to return home.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner has warned residents that their homes could remain flooded for up to 15 days because of ongoing releases of water from two reservoirs protecting downtown.
The city said the water releases were necessary to preserve the reservoirs’ structural integrity, but many at the rally said their homes were being sacrificed to save others.
More than 30,000 federal workers have been deployed in Texas to assist withrelief and recovery.
Turner has asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide more workers to process applications from thousands of people seeking government help. He plans to request a preliminary aid package of $75 million for debris removal alone.
Harvey initially came ashore Aug. 25 as a Category 4 hurricane, then went back out to sea and lingered off the coast as a tropical storm for days. The storm brought five straight days of rain totaling close to 52 inches in one location, the heaviest tropical downpour ever recorded in the continental United States.
Another storm was churning far out over the Atlantic. Hurricane Irma was on a course that could bring it near the eastern Caribbean Sea by early next week. The Category 2 storm was moving northwest at nearly 13 miles per hour. No coastal watches or warnings were in effect.
►Mass. volunteers help people displaced by storm. B2
