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On the night of July 3 and into the early morning of the holiday, central Texas began experiencing devastating flash floods. The death toll currently sits at 95, with the number expected to rise. Camp Mystic, a girls summer camp, confirmed the deaths of 27 children and counselors.
Eric Vryn / Getty Images
Amid heavy rains, the Guadalupe River rose 26 feet in just 45 minutes. Kerr County — where the majority of deaths occurred — has no external warning system for floods. According to AP, Judge Rob Kelly, who is apparently the county’s top elected official, said a tornado-style siren was considered for the area along the river six or seven years ago, before he took office. “We’ve looked into it before … The public reeled at the cost,” he said.
Eric Vryn / Getty Images
According to NPR’s timeline, the National Weather Service office in Austin/San Antonio issued a flood watch on the afternoon of July 3 and a flood warning shortly before midnight. Both the Austin/San Antonio and San Angelo offices posted about the flash flood emergency on their social media pages around 4:20 a.m.
The tragedy struck just two months after the Trump administration cut funding and laid off workers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), including the National Weather Service (NWS), sparking widespread backlash online.
The NWS lost nearly 600 workers this year, though the agency rehired some following public outcry, per NPR.
Some were appalled that Texas officials seemingly tried to place blame on the NWS.
KVUE / ABC / Twitter: @RonFilipkowski
Other social media users recalled the open letter that five NWS directors penned back in May, when they wrote that “their worst nightmare” was understaffing leading to “needless loss of life.”
Vice President JD Vance and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson publicly shared their prayers, drawing ire and frustration.
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Fox News / Twitter: @FPWellman
Other politicians, like Marjorie Taylor Greene, seemingly responded to the tragedy with posts about conspiracy theories. She announced that she’s introducing a bill to prohibit “altering weather” and insisted we must “end the dangerous and deadly practice of weather modification and geoengineering.”
She was promptly criticized for not knowing “what the hell she’s talking about.”
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Similarly, conservatives are being called out for believing in “magical weather control machines but not climate change.”
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem garnered backlash for saying Trump is “currently upgrading the technology in the National Weather Service,” for obvious reasons.
CNN / Twitter: @CalltoActivism
Some folks recalled the Florida weatherman who went viral for warning viewers that “the quality of the forecast is becoming degraded” due to a nearly 20% decrease in weather balloon launching and the widespread staffing cuts across the NWS and NOAA.
NBC / Twitter: @CalltoActivism
Many social media users are hoping these horrifying floods will spark change and prevent similar deaths in the future. However, Trump was asked in a recent interview about the cuts’ impact on the NWS. He responded, “That was really the Biden setup.”
CNN / Twitter: @RpsAgainstTrump
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