Donald Trump to visit flood-hit Texas on Friday amid uproar over weather forecasting failures and massive devastation

Published 2 days ago• 3 minute read

US President Donald Trump will travel to Texas on Friday (July 11) to visit areas affected by recent severe flooding.

The death toll from catastrophic flooding in central Texas climbed past 100 on Tuesday (July 8), with Kerr County alone accounting for at least 87 fatalities. The disaster, which struck in the early hours of Friday, has been described as a “100-year catastrophe” by Trump.

Among the victims were at least 27 girls and camp counselors at Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River that was housing around 750 people when the waters rose with devastating speed.

“The river came up 26 feet in just 45 minutes,” said Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly. “Nobody saw this coming.”

Survivors recounted terrifying scenes as floodwaters surged before dawn. Many said they received no warning before the water inundated homes and swept away entire structures.

“It was a pitch black wall of death,” one survivor told reporters. “There was no alert. We had no time.”

Speaking from his Bedminster golf club, Trump called the floods “a horrible thing” and defended local response efforts.

“This was a thing that happened in seconds. Nobody expected it. Nobody saw it,” he said. “Very talented people there, and they didn’t see it.”

The weather service initially issued flood advisories on Thursday, followed by a series of flash flood warnings early Friday, eventually escalating to flash flood emergencies.

Despite these alerts, officials and local leaders said they were unprepared for the extreme rainfall. Some residents reported receiving no warnings at all.

Meanwhile, meteorologists and former federal officials have raised concerns that years of staffing cuts under the Trump administration may have weakened the agency’s ability to deliver timely and accurate warnings ahead of the disaster.

Trump signed a major disaster declaration for Texas on Sunday, unlocking federal emergency funds and activating FEMA to assist with response and recovery.

Despite previous comments suggesting disaster response should be state-managed, Trump emphasised support: “We’re busy working. It’s absolutely horrible what took place.”

When asked whether the floods exposed weaknesses in the administration’s disaster preparedness, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called such claims “a depraved lie.”

“This is a time of national mourning, not finger-pointing,” she said Monday. “Blaming President Trump serves no purpose.”

Hundreds of employees at the top US agency responsible for weather and climate research have been laid off so far as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to downsize the federal government.

At least 880 staff members were cut from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—which oversees the National Weather Service and provides critical data to commercial forecasters—according to Senator Maria Cantwell, the ranking member of the Senate committee that oversees the agency.

Also, Trump has proposed slashing or dismantling FEMA and NOAA.

When pressed on whether the staffing reductions had weakened the disaster response, Trump deflected, referencing his Democratic predecessor.

“That water situation, that all is, and that was really the Biden setup,” he said. “But I wouldn’t blame Biden for it, either. I would just say this is a 100-year catastrophe.”

When asked, he said he had no plans to rehire them. “I would think not,” he said. “This was a thing that happened in seconds. Nobody expected it. Nobody saw it.”

Rick Spinrad, former head of NOAA, warned the staffing reductions have “inevitably degraded the agency’s ability to deliver accurate and timely forecasts.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose department oversees FEMA, admitted early warnings “did not fully predict the severity of the flooding,” and said President Trump promised upgrades to weather forecasting systems.

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