Congressman Randy Weber stopped by the Jack Brooks Regional Airport on Saturday to reassure residents that the federal government would help the area recover from Tropical Storm Harvey.

Weber, a Republican, said he’s lived on the Gulf Coast his entire life and he has never seen a storm like Harvey.

“It’s been unbelievable,” he said. “The water may be gone but Harvey recovery will be going on for a long time. Arguablly, District 14 is ground zero for Harvey flooding.”

So far, Congress has passed a $15 billion package for Harvey relief and Weber said he expects more money to be made available.

“That $15 billion package was only a down payment,” he said. “They’re estimating this to be over $100 billion dollars.”

To that end, Weber introduced representatives from FEMA and from the Small Business Administration who were on hand to answer questions.

Edward Dawson, the SBA representative, urged residents to apply for FEMA help and also for a SBA loan. FEMA awards grants, which do not have to be repaid, and the SBA awards low interest loans. However, Dawson pointed out that if someone is denied an SBA loan they can then use that denial to request FEMA money.

Weber said the whole process will take time, and he urged residents to be patient.

“There were 751,000 FEMA applications at close of business yesterday (Friday),” Weber said. He then added that as of Friday, only 119,000 homes had been inspected by FEMA.

“What we’re telling people is please, please be patient. It’s going to take time,” he said.

Ken Higginbotham, a FEMA external affairs officer, told citizens that FEMA is here to stay. Florida, he said, is being serviced by other FEMA representatives.

“We have a great group of people here and we’re not going anywhere,” he said. “We’re here for the long haul. Everybody from the president on down is working very, very hard in getting people back on the road to recovery in the state of Texas. There are 1,900 inspectors in the state. And there are close to a million people have applied. And we expect more.”

Higginbotham said FEMA has a new location in Port Arthur at 3600 Gates Boulevard and there will be someone at that location seven days a week.

The SBA location is at Lamar College’s Small Business Development Center at 1401 Procter St.

Weber went on to say he expects federal aid to help “harden the grid,” in order to prevent another catastrophic rain from shutting down the city.

“We need to make sure the electrical grid doesn’t go down more than it has to,” he said.

When asked whether the torrential storm had made him reconsider the dangers of climate change, Weber said it’s not a good time to talk about that though he did not discount a future conversation.

“No, at this point we’re working on getting people whole and back in their homes,” he said. “We may have that discussion later, but right now were so focused on recovery and we’ll see if that takes place later.”

However, Weber did later concede that massive, destructive storms are occurring with more frequency.

“How many of you have been in a couple of 500 year floods? Five hundred years goes by like that,” he said, snapping his fingers.

He called Harvey an 800-year flood.

“I think we’ll do better next time,” he added.

As a consequence of the bigger, wetter storms, Weber said he expects Congress to allocate more money for better infrastructure in this area to protect the petrochemical industry.

“We expect to see this area of the country getting infrastructure dollars,” he said.

He then spent time chatting with constituents and giving an update on Congressional matters.

Congress and the Senate must pass a budget by the end of the month, and Weber praised President Donald Trump’s willingness to work with Democrats to get a budget done.

“I don’t think he’s that bad,” Weber said of the president. “Let’s take the drama out of (the budget process. I’m mjust telling you the fact that the president will work across the aisle to get something done is different. And if we can learn from that … so it doesn’t wind up on our shoulders as a big meltdown on Sept. 30, then we can do other things.”

If the Republican-held Congress and Senate do not pass a budget, there could be a government shutdown.