The natural disaster is widely seen as one of Trump's first biggest tests in office. | Win McNamee/Getty Images Trump: 'Saving lives' top priority in Harvey relief efforts

President Donald Trump directed federal government agencies on Saturday to make avoiding the loss of life the "number one priority" in Hurricane Harvey relief efforts, according to a White House readout of discussions between the president and administration officials.

"President Trump emphasized his expectations that all departments and agencies stay fully engaged and positioned to support his number one priority of saving lives," the White House said of Trump's communications with Cabinet and federal officials. The White House added that Trump urged officials to remain "fully engaged" in coming days, as Harvey is projected to continue to cause major flooding and storm surging in impacted areas along the coast of Texas.


Harvey made landfall 30 miles northeast of Corpus Christi, Texas, late Friday as a Category 4 Hurricane, the fiercest storm to strike the U.S. in more than a decade. Overnight Saturday it weakened to a Category 1 and in the early afternoon it was downgraded to tropical storm status. Despite this, Harvey has already caused hundreds of thousands of Texas residents to lose power and threatens to dump as much as 40 inches of rain over the next several days.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said during a press conference Saturday afternoon in Austin that there had been no confirmed deaths linked to Harvey. But soon afterward, the mayor of Rockport, a small city along the Texas Gulf Coast, said one person had died as a result of the storm.

The president made a disaster declaration Friday night as Hurricane Harvey was about to make landfall in Texas, vowing to devote the "full force" of the federal government to emergency aid in the state.

"At the request of the Governor of Texas, I have signed the Disaster Proclamation, which unleashes the full force of government help!" the president wrote on Twitter.

Just minutes prior, the National Hurricane Center announced that the storm was close to making landfall as a Category 4 Hurricane. The storm, previously projected to arrive in Texas as a Category 3 storm, was upgraded to Category 4 late Friday and was projected to reach wind speeds of up to 130 mph.

Trump repeatedly vowed to assist Texas officials, including Abbott, in dealing with the storm.

The White House added in a statement released Friday that federal aid could include "grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster."

Sen. Chuck Grassley urged Trump Friday morning in a tweet to "keep on top of hurricane Harvey" and not make the "same mistake" former President George W. Bush made with Hurricane Katrina in 2005, to which the president directly replied: "got your message loud and clear."

"We have fantastic people on the ground, got there long before #Harvey. So far, so good!" Trump replied on Twitter Saturday.

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Harvey, the fiercest storm to make landfall in the U.S. in over a decade, hit the shores Friday night north of Corpus Christi, Texas. Soon afterword Trump tweeted that the government would remain "fully engaged w/ open lines of communication" with officials on the ground.

"We are leaving nothing to chance," President Trump wrote on Twitter Saturday morning. The president also commended the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Brock Long, about eight hours after the hurricane made landfall, tweeting, "You are doing a great job - the world is watching! Be safe."

Abbott praised the Trump administration's response to the storm during an interview late Friday night on Fox News.

“The White House is fully engaged, very helpful, very concerned about the people of Texas," he said. "The State of Texas has received everything we’ve asked for from the White House and we’re very grateful for it."

The natural disaster is widely seen as one of Trump's first big tests in office — a test congressional Democrats are already seemingly seeking to flunk the president on.

Senate Minorty Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) slammed Trump late Friday for using the "cover" of the storm to push through several controversial decisions, including pardoning former Sheriff Joe Arpaio and signing a directive to reinstate a ban on transgender individuals serving in the military.

"As millions of people in TX and LA are prepping for the hurricane, the President is using the cover of the storm to [p]ardon a man who violated a court's order to stop discriminating against Latinos and Ban courageous transgender men and women from serving our nation's Armed Forces," the Democratic leader wrote on Twitter.

The White House announced the pardon of Arpaio, a controversial anti-immigration figure, just hours before Hurricane Harvey made landfall on Friday. The president had signaled the move during a rally in Phoenix on Tuesday, but said he opted to hold off on doing so to avoid causing a "controversy." Trump first announced his intent to reinstate the ban on transgender military officers during a series of tweets on July 26.

Emily Goldberg contributed to this report.