Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was reportedly spotted on vacation at the Parthenon in Greece within 24 hours of the catastrophic floods that killed at least 111 people in his home state.
A photo of Cruz, 54, at the historic structure was captured at around 6:00 p.m. on Saturday (July 5), more than 24 hours after the Guadalupe River initially burst its banks on Friday (July 4). The senator publicly claimed that he flew back to Texas "as fast as humanly possible," arriving back in Texas Sunday (July 6) night.
“Within hours, he spoke by phone with Governor [Greg] Abbott, Lt. Governor [Dan] Patrick, Texas emergency management director Nim Kidd, and President Trump, working to ensure that the maximum federal assets were available for search and rescue,” a spokesperson told the newspaper. “He and his team worked closely with local officials and with families of missing girls throughout that time. He promptly booked a flight back home. Given the time difference, he left Athens on Sunday morning and was back in Texas that night. And he was in Kerrville on the ground early Monday morning,” the statement continued, adding that he had returned home “as fast as humanly possible.”
Flight data obtained by the New York Post, however, reportedly shows that Cruz could've returned from his vacation sooner. The data reportedly showed multiple flights from Athens to several major U.S. hubs connected to San Antonio, the closest major airport to Kerr County, where the majority of deaths occurred.
Cruz left for his Athens trip on Thursday (July 3) after the Senate voted to pass President Donald Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act.' At least 111 people have died and at least 161 people are known to be missing in Kerr County in relation to catastrophic floods in Texas, officials confirmed via CNN.