The death toll from the July Fourth weekend flooding in central and southern Texas has risen to at least 95 as of Monday afternoon, while ten campers and one counselor from a summer camp in Kerr County remain unaccounted for. The catastrophic event is raising urgent questions about whether cuts to the National Weather Service impacted its ability to warn the public in time. Though, officials are pushing back on that assertion.

What happened: Catastrophic floods took place in areas around the Guadalupe River area overnight Friday, including at Campy Mystic, a century-old all-girls summer camp northwest of San Antonio. People sleeping in tents, cabins, and homes were swept away in the middle of the night by waters that surged at about 30 feet during one of the nation’s worst floods in decades. Camp Mystic has said they lost 27 young campers and counselors as of Monday.

Kerr County experienced the worst of the flooding, where officials reported 75 deaths so far, including 48 adults and 27 children. The remaining fatalities occurred in five other nearby Texas counties.
Flood watches remain in effect today across central Texas.

CHALLENGES WITH THE WARNINGS
On Thursday at 1:18 PM local time, the National Weather Service (NWS) of Austin/San Antonio announced an initial flood watch, highlighting Kerr County in central Texas as a hotspot for overnight flooding. The warning was to last until Friday morning.

On Friday at 1:14 AM, the NWS upgraded it to a Flash Flood Warning. An alert went out to mobile devices — though most people were likely asleep, and some areas reported having no cell phone coverage. At 3:35 AM, another warning told people to “move to higher ground now.”
The Guadalupe River began surging to more than 30 feet between 4 AM and 6 AM. The NWS warned, “A very dangerous flash flooding event is ongoing” and urged residents to evacuate immediately.
- By Friday at 7 AM, Kerr County begins to evacuate people near the river.

Some Texas officials have criticized the NWS communications. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the messages didn’t match the level of urgency. Officials in Kerr County proposed a county-wide flood warning system in 2017, but it was rejected at the time for being too expensive.

The NWS said that warnings issued in the run-up to the flooding were as timely and accurate as possible given the available weather data at the time, and that the agency was adequately staffed to handle the crisis.

BUDGET CUTS & STAFFING
Accusations began emerging that recent budget cuts to the NWS impaired its ability to deliver advance notice. The Trump administration laid off roughly 600 workers from the NWS and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in April amid national budget cuts. As of Friday, the NWS of Austin/San Antonio had six job vacancies, including for a warning coordination meteorologist after the previous employee took an early buyout in April.

Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) told CNN, “I don't think it's helpful to have missing key personnel from the National Weather Service not in place to help prevent these tragedies.”
Tom Fahy, the legislative director for the NWS Employees Organization, acknowledged the staffing shortages but said the offices had enough meteorologists to respond to the event.
In fact, the NWS office in New Braunfels, which delivers forecasts for Austin, San Antonio and the surrounding areas, said they had extra staff on duty during the storm: up to five employees, as opposed to the normal two on clear weather nights.

The White House said that accusations that cuts to the NWS affected its ability to deliver warnings were "shameful and disgusting."

RESCUE EFFORTS
“The real heroes were the kids,” said Coast Guard rescue swimmer Scott Ruskan of the girls at Camp Mystic, who helped each other stay calm and alive as floodwaters tore through their cabins.

Ruskan was lowered from a helicopter during the storm and helped rescue 165 campers and staff — his first mission ever. “These were kids just trying to have a summer,” Ruskan, 26, told ABC. “And nature didn’t give them a chance.”