Texas, National Weather Service
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Death toll at 129
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After the catastrophic flash flooding in central Texas on July 4, 2025, users online claimed that U.S. President Donald Trump's administration was ultimately to blame for the flood's 100 deaths due to staffing cuts at the National Weather Service.
Q: Is it true that if President Donald Trump hadn’t defunded the National Weather Service, the death toll in the Texas flooding would have been far lower or nonexistent? A: The Trump administration did not defund the NWS but did reduce the staff by 600 people.
NWS says Flash Flood Warnings were issued on July 3 and early July 4 in Central Texas, giving more than three hours of warning.
The White House is defending the National Weather Service and accusing some Democrats of playing politics in the wake of devastating floods in Texas.
Key positions at National Weather Service offices across Texas are vacant, sowing doubt over the state’s ability to respond to natural disasters as rescuers comb through the flood-ravaged Hill Country.
"A lot of the weather forecast offices now are not operating at full complement of staff," said the former lead of NOAA.
Sen. Chuck Schumer is pressing the NWS’s watchdog to probe whether Trump’s cuts worsened the recent catastrophe.
4don MSN
After the death toll in the catastrophic flash floods in Texas reached at least 104 people, including 27 campers and counselors from Camp Mystic, an all girls camp, the Trump administration is explaining the series of warnings that were issued ahead of the floods.