Update banner story   ((BRIEF SLUG: BIDEN-TEXAS, 1st UPD HEADLINE:  TEASER:  PUBLISHED AT:  2/26/21 at 3:57pm BYLINE: VOA News  CONTRIBUTOR:     WRITER:    Megan Duzor, Wayne Lee DATELINE:     SCRIPT EDITORS:  Sue Jepsen, Bowman TYPE:  Brief    EDITOR NOTES: updates with Biden’s arrival in Texas, new info, minor edits throughout))      President Joe Biden is visiting the state of Texas to survey the extensive damage caused by a severe winter storm that cut power and drinking water to millions of homes during the coronavirus pandemic.Biden and his wife, Jill, landed Friday afternoon in Houston, the largest city in Texas, where Republican Governor Greg Abbott and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner met them.President Joe Biden speaks with a volunteer at the Houston Food Bank, Feb. 26, 2021, in Houston.The president visited a food bank in the city and toured an emergency operations center. Later, he was to speak at a Federal Emergency Management Agency COVID-19 vaccination facility set up in a stadium.At least 40 people in Texas were killed when the winter storm swept across southern U.S. states in mid-February. Texas was hardest hit by the unusually cold temperatures that triggered outages and caused water pipes to freeze and burst, flooding homes and leaving many without heat and drinkable water.FILE – People wait in line to fill propane tanks in Houston, Texas, Feb. 17, 2021. Millions in the state had no power after a historic snowfall and freezing temperatures created a surge of demand for electricity the power grid could not provide.Temperatures in the region are returning to normal, but more than 1 million Texas residents are still under orders to boil water before drinking it.Biden, a Democrat, was being accompanied by the Republican governor, who initially did not recognize Biden’s November victory over Donald Trump, as the president met with local leaders and volunteers to discuss relief and recovery efforts.Biden has issued disaster declarations in 108 of the state’s 254 counties and signaled he may increase the number. Abbott asked Biden last week to issue disaster declarations in all counties.The declarations authorize FEMA to provide funding for temporary housing, home repairs and low-interest loans for uninsured property losses. The action also frees up funding to help distressed individuals and businesses owners.Biden’s deputy national security adviser, Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, told reporters during the flight to Texas on Air Force One that the state’s lack of energy regulation had hurt it during the storm.”Texas has chosen not to make the kinds of decisions that would provide for the supplies that you would keep for an emergency — that is, to invest in a kind of resilience that other states which are regulated are required to invest in,” she said.During the visit, Biden’s first to a disaster site since taking office nearly six weeks ago, he also planned to encourage people to get vaccinated against COVID-19 to help contain the pandemic that has killed more than 508,000 people in the United States.As with the coronavirus pandemic, the federal disaster response in Texas poses an early test of Biden’s promise to work for all segments of American society and thereby unify the country.The White House said Biden would bring empathy and assurances of federal financial help to Texas but would refrain from lecturing about the perils of the state’s lack of regulation of its power grid. 
…