The Texas Floods Were a Natural Disaster, Not a Policy Disaster
It’s a news cycle as old as the weather.
A terrible natural disaster results in the loss of life and property.
The chattering classes immediately begin to heap blame on their political enemies for bringing about the disaster, while partisans on the other side insist that they are blameless.
Initial comments from officials—who often have an interest in defending the performance of their agency—are taken at face value or taken out of context.
Such has been the case with the weekend’s flash floods in central Texas, which have reportedly killed 94Â people thus far, including (tragically) dozens of children at a summer camp along the Guadalupe River.
In the immediate aftermath, some local and state officials in Texas were quick to point the finger at the federal National Weather Service (NWS), whose initial forecasts from earlier in the week predicted much less rain than the region ended up getting.
This criticism was accepted by liberal commentators and Democratic elected officials, who in turn blamed faulty NWS forecasts on the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency cuts to the agency, which did leave some local Texas NWS positions unfilled.
Trump & Musk gutted the National Weather Service. The result was predictable: A bad forecast leading to the death of children in a horrific flood. https://t.co/OCqTwRSsGi
— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) July 5, 2025
Do you think the Warning Coordination Meteorologist position at the Austin/San Antonio office was important?
He left in April as part of the DOGE cuts which offered early retirement to reduce the workforce. It’s now vacant, part of the strategy of reducing staff through… pic.twitter.com/AVe4joUqCm
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) July 5, 2025
The Warming Coordination Specialist in the Austin/San Antonio area was forced into early retirement by Trump and Elon’s DOGE firings.
Via @ryangrim pic.twitter.com/vDwqcl5FPJ
— Rachel Bitecofer ???????? (@RachelBitecofer) July 6, 2025
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D–N.Y.)  has called for a probe into whether cuts to the NWS played a role in the weekend’s disaster.
NWS has contradicted claims that it was understaffed in the run-up to the weekend’s floods.
“We had adequate staffing. We had adequate technology,” Greg Waller, service coordination hydrologist with the NWS West Gulf River Forecast Center in Fort Worth, told The Texas Tribune. An official with the NWS union also told the Tribune that local staffing was adequate to provide timely warnings.
Independent meteorologists have also defended NWS’s p
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