Trump surveys Texas flood damage
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Texas officials face questions about emergency alerts
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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.
The president has defended his administration's response to the fatal flooding amid criticism that federal assistance could have been provided more quickly.
More than 170 people are still believed to be missing a week after the forceful floodwater hit over the July Fourth weekend.
Heavy rain poured over parts of central Texas, dumping more than a month's worth of rain for places like San Angelo.
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.
9hon MSN
Weather warnings predicted devastation from both the Texas floods and Hurricane Helene. But in both disasters, people were left in harm’s way.
For years, employees say, they've had to do more with less. But the ability to fill in the gaps became strained to the breaking point when the Trump administration began pushing new staffing cuts.
"FEMA has been really headed by some very good people,” Trump said during a roundtable with local officials, suggesting his administration turned the agency around after sharply criticizing the Biden administration-led FEMA response to flooding in North Carolina in late 2024.