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.

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,

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.

Warnings predicted both 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.

The death toll from the devastating Texas floods has risen to over 110 people and at least 173 remain missing. Former NOAA Administrator Richard Spinrad joins Ana Cabrera to break down the timeline of the flood alerts and to provide more insight on response.

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