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.

NWS says Flash Flood Warnings were issued on July 3 and early July 4 in Central Texas, giving more than three hours of warning.

Warnings predicted both Texas floods and Hurricane Helene. But in both disasters, people were left in harm’s way.

The National Weather Service says its Central Texas office was prepared for the devastating storms, but understaffed offices may not be. Scott Friedman reports.

People awoke from water rushing around them during the early morning hours of July 4, all along the Guadalupe River in the Texas Hill Country. Residents were seemingly caught off guard, but warnings had been issued days and hours before floodwaters began carrying away homes,

The White House is defending the National Weather Service and accusing some Democrats of playing politics in the wake of devastating floods in Texas.

"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.

Some governors and mayors are concerned over how current or potential cuts to agencies will impact how the government can respond in the future to major weather events.

Renowned Texas meteorologist Troy Kimmel spoke on Inside Texas Politics about the forecast preceding the deadly flooding in the Hill Country.

With hurricane season underway and jobs still open at the National Weather Service, Alief native Matt Moreland will serve as meteorologist-in-charge.