Officials ride a boat as they arrive to assist with a recovery effort at Camp Mystic along the Guadalupe River after a flash flood swept through the area Sunday, July 6, 2025, in Hunt, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

After a series of storms caused deadly flash flooding in Texas over the weekend, questions arose over President Donald Trump’s priority to reduce federal staffing and implementing major cuts to several agencies.

The flooding occurred in Texas Hill Country, an area in central Texas north of the Guadalupe River Basin that is notoriously prone to flash floods. The death toll has risen to over 100, with 27 children and counselors from Camp Mystic, a girl’s summer camp in Kerr County, among the deceased. Many are still missing as rescue and recovery efforts continue, and the death toll is expected to rise.

According to AP News, the initial flood watch was issued by the local National Weather Service (NWS) at 1:18 p.m. last Thursday. At 4:03 a.m. last Friday morning, urgent warnings were issued just before the largest flood in a century hit the area. According to NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth, the NWS forecasted a “life-threatening flash flooding” warning at 1:14 a.m.

There are conflicting reports on whether the warnings were received by everyone in the area however and whether evacuations should have occurred on Thursday. Lack of cell service, weather radios and storm warning sirens in the area could have contributed to the death toll. Camp Mystic also reportedly has a policy of no phones for the campers, meaning many of the children likely did not have access to their devices to receive the warnings.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) also suggested the NWS warnings did not convey the severity of the floods ahead of time.

“To most people in the area, flash flooding would mean one thing, not what it turned out to be,” Abbott said. “There’s the potential for flash flooding, but there’s no expectation of a water wall of almost 30 feet high.”

This sentiment was echoed by other Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice, who blamed the NWS for not accurately forecasting the amount of rainfall. The NWS defended its forecasting, saying the issue came with getting the alerts out and notifying the severity of the flooding.

Abbott and other Republicans have routinely applauded Trump and the administration’s efforts to slash federal funding and reduce staffing in the name of efficiency and fiscal responsibility. The cuts to weather services were also laid out in Project 2025, which says NOAA is a primary component of “the climate change alarm industry” and it should be broken up.

Despite scientific data consistently pointing toward more severe storms (especially hurricanes) as the climate grows warmer, NOAA is also set to lose access to microwave sensors attached to three satellites in orbit. These sensors allow scientists to peer through layers of clouds to help forecast hurricanes, but the Department of Defense will have sole access to the instruments moving forward.

According to CNN’s Dana Bash, two NWS stations that forecast flooding around the Guadalupe River are missing key staff members due to the Trump administration’s federal budget cuts and buyouts which have led to reduced staff.

During an interview with CNN, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) didn’t blame the reduced staffs on the delayed alerts but said he does not think it is helpful to have reduced staff anywhere when it comes to forecasting.

“When you have flash flooding, there is a risk that you won’t have the personnel to make, to do that analysis. Do the predictions in the best way, and it could lead to tragedy,” Castro said. “I don’t want to sit here and say conclusively that that was the case, but I do think it should be investigated. And not having enough personnel is never helpful.”

Trump made cuts to the NWS soon after taking office in January. As of early June, the NWS has lost around 600 employees of an organization with less than 5,000 workers. According to South Florida meteorologist John Morales, the cuts have also led to a 17% reduction in weather balloon launches across the country, which has resulted in degraded forecast accuracy.

In May, five former directors of the NWS issued an open letter warning that the proposed 30% funding cut and 18% staff reduction to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the NWS’s parent agency, would result in unnecessary deaths in the wake of severe weather events.