HOUSTON President Donald Trump landed in Texas on Tuesday to meet with officials on the ground and assess damage from Hurricane Harvey , as residents continued to grapple with massive flooding and persistent rainfall.

Since making landfall on Friday as a Category 4 storm , Harvey has dumped more than 40 inches of rain across southern Texas and displaced tens of thousands of people. Some of the worst effects have hit Houston, the nations fourth-largest city.

As of Tuesday morning, the storm had broken the record for the most rainfall in the continental U.S. , according to the National Weather Service.

The president and first lady Melania Trump made stops in Corpus Christi, near where the storm made landfall, and in Austin, the site of the storms emergency response center.

Lawmakers and officials updated Trump on the storm during his first stop. The president praised recovery and rescue efforts, but added that we dont want to say congratulations. Well congratulate each other when its all finished.

Trump expressed awe at Harveys epic proportions, and said officials response to the storm could serve as a model for the future.

We want to be looked at in five years, in 10 years from now as, this is the way to do it, he said. We want to do it better than ever before.

Trump avoided visiting areas hit hardest by the storm, saying he did not want to disrupt rescue and recovery efforts with the complicated logistics of a presidential visit.

The president wants to be very cautious about making sure that any activity doesnt disrupt any of the recovery efforts that are still ongoing, which is the reason for the locations we are going here today, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters aboard Air Force One.