President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump visited flood-ravaged central Texas, where 120 people were killed last weekend. Another 161 are still missing
At a roundtable, Trump says he has never seen devastation like this before and describes the Guadalupe River as becoming a "monster"
Their visit comes as questions mount over the response from authorities, and what warnings residents received
As the BBC's Bernd Debusmann Jr writes, the president is likely to face tough questioning about whether enough was done to alert people of the dangers
Last weekend, deadly storms ravaged central Texas, with several months' worth of rain in a few hours. River levels rose, submerging homes, roads and cars
‘I pray for them’ - First Lady Melania offers condolences to Texas flood victims
A group of Texas officials has arrived at the Kerrville roundtable - waiting for Donald Trump to arrive.
We can see Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, as well as Congressmen Dan Crenshaw and Brandon Gill.
Image source, ReutersWhile talking with local officials, Trump stands a few feet away from debris from the storm.
That includes an overturned tractor trailer, lying amongst a large pile of branches.
Image source, Getty Images
Image source, Reuters
Image source, ReutersTrump is currently speaking with local officials, alongside the first lady and Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
One official they're talking to is Kerville city manager Dalton Rice, near what appears to be trees downed by the flood, a fire engine and a map of the area.
Image source, ReutersThe president's motorcade has been driving through Kerrville, ahead of a meeting with first responders and local officials.
Cheers could be heard from residents lining the streets waiting for Trump
After stepping off Marine One, Trump shakes hands with Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
The president and first lady then enter a vehicle and drive off in a motorcade.
Image source, ReutersPresident Trump and First Lady Melania have just landed in Kerrville.
As a reminder, you can watch live at the top of the page.
Ahead of Trump's arrival, some Texas residents were busy creating welcome signs to greet him.
Others lined the streets, waving American flags.
Image source, Reuters
Image source, ReutersThe US president is heading to Kerrville aboard the Marine One helicopter - around 65 miles (104 km) away from San Antonio, where he landed on Air Force One around half an hour ago.
Trump will be assesing the flood damage and will hold a roundtable with oficials and locals. As we just mentioned, he will be joined by Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz.
A large majority of the deaths from last weekend's flooding occured in Kerrville and the surrounding area. At least 120 people have been killed across Texas, with 161 still missing.
Image source, Getty ImagesTrump will be joined in Kerrville by Governor Greg Abbott and Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz.
All three have visited Kerrville and spoken about the devastating floods.
"Texas is grieving from a wound unlike any I’ve ever seen, and the Lone Star State needs everyone’s support," Cruz posted on X.
Abbott has been giving regular updates on the number of dead and missing, including on a stop in Kerrville earlier this week.
At a news conference on Sunday, he said people in Texas were used to flash flood warnings, but there was no sense of how deadly this would be.
"There's no expectation of a water wall of almost 30ft high," he said.
We can share with you these pictures from on the tarmac after Donald and Melania Trump landed at Kelly Field air base in San Antonio.
Image source, Reuters
Image source, ReutersDonald and Melania Trump have now boarded the Marine One helicopter.
Soon they will head towards Kerrville for an aerial tour of where a bulk of the flood's destruction occurred.
Image source, Getty ImagesDonald Trump and First Lady Melania have just walked off Air Force One and are on their way to presidential helicopter, Marine One.
You can watch the scene in San Antonio by pressing watch live at the top of the page.
Image source, ReutersUS President Donald Trump has touched down in Texas.
He has landed at an Air Force base in nearby San Antonio and will be traveling to Kerrville from there.
Image source, Getty ImagesPeople in Kerrville tearfully pay their respects at a makeshift memorial to the victims of the flooding
Image source, Getty ImagesAlong the memorial wall are photos of each of the known victims, including Camp Mystic counsellor Chloe Childress
Image source, Getty ImagesKerrville residents pray in front of the memorial
Image source, Getty ImagesMore photos and names of those killed in Kerr County, including some of the young girls who died at Camp Mystic
Kayla Epstein
US reporter
In the aftermath of the floods, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) is under scrutiny as the Trump administration has made changes to how it operates.
A particular focus is on how much freedom the agency has to distribute funds.
CNN reports that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem requires any Fema payment over $100,000 (£74,000) to receive her approval., external The Washington Post reports that rule may have led to a delay, external in resources during the Texas flood disaster.
$100,000 is an unusually low threshold for approval, according to Myra Shird, a 14-year veteran of Fema who left the agency last September, and has experience coordinating on the ground responses to natural disasters.
"Anything that small, and the secretary has to sign, and there’s a multi-state disaster? That’s a lot of signatures in line for things that normally would have been done differently," she says.
"When I was on the ground… I notified people after $3 million, and I could sign [off on] up to $10 million. It depended on the disaster," she tells the BBC.
Nomia Iqbal
Reporting from Kerr County
President Trump will shortly arrive in a state which has consistently voted for him.
It very much explains why he’s full of praise for Texas’ Republican Governor Greg Abbott, unlike his approach to California Governor Gavin Newsom when wildfires ripped through the Democratic-run state.
But there’s a real paradox here in Kerr County.
Donald Trump’s supporters back his cuts to the federal government agencies, yet they also want the government to help them rebuild.
There are reports Trump is now planning to move away from abolishing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema).
Presidents are often defined by the way they handle natural disasters and Trump is sensing the mood here. He may be once again moving the goalposts to fit the occasion.
Image source, ReutersWith the death toll in Texas exceeding 120 people, questions are being raised about whether adequate flood warnings were provided and why people weren't evacuated ahead of the deluge.
In the space of 45 minutes in the early hours of Friday morning, the Guadalupe River rose by 26ft (8m), causing it to burst its banks.
By then there had been several flood warnings issued, including from the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) and the National Weather Service (NWS).
The NWS has said it was heartbroken at the loss following the floods, but that it did all it could, conducting briefings on Thursday and issuing a flood watch warning that afternoon.
People have reported receiving text message alerts on their mobile phones early on Friday morning, warning them of flooding. Some residents told the New York Times,, external they did not understand the seriousness of them and others said they never received any at all.
Before the tragedy, there had also been concerns over the Trump administration's budget cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) - the government agency that operates the NWS.
Read more about what flood warnings were issued and when in our news story.
Matt Taylor
BBC Weather
While it is difficult to directly attribute the influence of our warming planet on one particular weather event - indeed we have seen flooding similar to last weekend's event in the past - there are a few things to note when examining the role of climate change in flood disasters.
Sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico, where some of the air that contributed to these storms originated from, continue to be warmer than normal.
Warmer waters mean more evaporation and so more available moisture in the atmosphere for storms to tap into.
2024 was a record-breaking year for the amount of moisture in the atmosphere, according to Copernicus climate data, meaning more "fuel" for extreme rainfall events.
Climate scientists continue to remind us that such rainfall events as we have seen in Texas will become more frequent and more extreme as the planet warms.
Bernd Debusmann Jr
US reporter
Image source, EPA/ShutterstockAlong with federal officials and politicians, today's visit to Texas includes someone rarely seen on President Trump's trips away from the White House: Melania Trump.
While the first lady is occasionally seen during White House events - some of which, like the Congressional Picnic, are planned with her input - it's much more rare to see her travelling with her husband outside of Washington.
In a similar visit in January just days after he returned to the office, Melania also accompanied Trump to North Carolina to survey the damage after Hurricane Helene, as well as to California to tour the areas impacted by devastating wildfires.
She also accompanied him to the Vatican for the funeral of Pope Francis.
Melania is, by White House standards, considered a very private first lady. Her presence on this trip is reflective of the scale of the disaster and the importance of the visit to the White House, which clearly seeks to use the president's visit to place the focus on the families of those impacted by the storms.
Texas: Timelapse shows how suddenly flood waters rose