The office of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, defended the timing of his return from a family vacation to Greece, telling media outlets that Cruz was back in Texas “as fast as humanly possible” amid backlash targeting his absence when floodwaters killed scores in his home state on Friday.

Cruz was already in Greece when flooding occurred in the Hill Country of Texas on July 4. At issue, however, is that Cruz was spotted visiting the Parthenon in Athens on Saturday, around 6 p.m. local time, after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had issued a disaster declaration, CNN reported. A tourist snapped a photo of Cruz and posted it to social media.

“The Senator was already in the middle of preplanned family vacation travel overseas when the flooding occurred on July 4. Within hours, he spoke by phone with Governor (Greg) Abbott, Lt. Governor (Dan) Patrick, Texas Emergency Management Director Nim Kidd, and President (Donald) Trump, working to ensure that the maximum federal assets were available for search and rescue,” Cruz’s office said in a statement to media outlets on Monday.

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