Kristi Noem Paints Emotional Picture After Meeting Families at Flood-Ravaged Texas Camp: ‘My Little Girl Died in There’

A somber Homeland Security chief, Kristi Noem, recalled meeting family members of the youngest Texas flooding victims, including a devastated father who she said told her, “My little girl died in there” outside a ravaged Camp Mystic cabin.

Noem admitted that she had “kind of fallen apart” inside the cabin where “all the little girls died” as she painted a grim picture of the flooding aftermath during President Donald Trump’s Tuesday cabinet meeting.

Outside the cabin, she spoke of an unforgettable encounter with a man who “looked like he needed a hug.”

Noem continued, “So I walked over to him and I hugged him and said, ‘Do you work here?’ ‘No, my little girl was in that cabin. I just found her best friend about an hour and a half ago. She had passed away.’ And he just fell apart. And so then we just hugged and talked for probably an hour about that.”

She said the visit was “very emotional” and “just so tragic.”

The camp has confirmed 27 deaths at Camp Mystic, including counselors and children as young as 8 years old.

Read her remarks here:

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: There has never been a wave like this outside the breaking of a dam. This was almost a wave that was — ended up being 30 feet high, more actually. Now with the dam you can understand it. But this approached almost with that speed. When you see a dam break, it is not a pretty sight.

It wipes out everything. This is the kind of thing that built up so fast and it has happened two or three times before over the years but not to this extent. Tell them when you met the father who was picking up the daughter’s clothing. So sad.

KRISTI NOEM: I walked through the cabin where all the little girls died. And I had kind of fallen apart in there. But I walked out of the cabin and a gentleman was standing there and he said, “That man over there needs a hug.” So I walked over to him and I hugged him and said, “Do you work here?” “No, my little girl was in that cabin. I just found her best friend about an hour and a half ago. She had passed away.”

And he just fell apart. And so then we just hugged and talked for probably an hour about that. Then there was another — the grandpa was there looking for his granddaughter as well. There was a dad there of one of the counselors. The counselor was alive but she was dealing with the fact that she had hung on to some of these girls and was trying to keep them out of the floodwaters and had gotten hit by something and had lost two of the girls and wasn’t able to hang onto them and was going to live the rest of her life thinking about that moment when she wasn’t able to hang on to these girls.

These parents were picking up their kids’ belongings out of the mud and throughout the camp and putting them in bags. One of the dads said, “I knew 50 of these girls here. So I knew that was her dress, my daughter’s friends dress.” He was picking it up and putting it in a bag to return to her parents. So it was — and then the director was there comforting everybody who had lost his father the night before, too.

And he was still there trying to facilitate all of these parents grieving their children and find them. So the strength of people is incredible. One of the things that I asked there that day was that they all have escorts or counselors when parents come in. So from that point when they came into the camp, they had somebody with them when they go and look for their children’s belongings and looking for their children. Very emotional. But also just so tragic.

Watch above via Fox News.