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Texas Flood Death Toll Raises Questions Over Trump-Era Forecast Cuts

Cutting roughly 600 meteorologist jobs under DOGE is blamed for flawed forecasts that preceded deadly Hill Country floods, prompting demands for a federal funding review.

Monitors display hurricane models during a news conference at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami, Florida, on May 30, 2025.
A view inside of a cabin at Camp Mystic, where at least 20 girls went missing after flash flooding in Hunt, Texas, on July 5, 2025.
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Overview

  • Flash floods swept through a girls’ camp in Kerr County before dawn on July 5, leaving at least 27 dead and dozens missing.
  • The National Weather Service forecast predicted 3–6 inches of rain in the Concho Valley and 4–8 inches in the Hill Country, but the actual deluge exceeded those amounts.
  • Texas Emergency Management Chief W. Nim Kidd said the specific location’s rainfall was never reflected in any of the NWS forecasts.
  • An internal New York Times document shows the NWS lost about 600 staffers under the administration’s DOGE program, degrading forecasting capacity.
  • Former GOP representative Adam Kinzinger criticized Republicans for resisting funding for predictive weather programs while blaming the federal government for forecasting failures.