Negligence and Trump's cuts made the Texas Flood a tragedy

It was a near decade of bad decisions coming to roost

A flash flood tore through central Texas on the early morning of July 4th with Kerr County hit hardest. Heavy rain caused the Guadalupe River to overflow, taking the lives of at least 110 people at the time of this writing including 27 campers and counselors from the nearby Camp Mystic. As rescue efforts continue, questions arise about how this tragedy occurred and if Trump’s cuts to the National Weather Service were the cause. While the cuts made things worse, it appears that the tragedy originated from the decisions of Kerr County itself.

Kerr County Commission Court’s disgusting negligence

Reddit user Timubce gathered court reports from Kerr County commissioners’ court [1], the managing and governing body of Kerr County, dating from 2016 to 2021, which show how the county was aware of its outdated systems and continually refused to take any action. The earliest report from 6/27/16 shows that Kerr County knew their flood warning system was outdated but did not want to update it with Commissioner Baldwin even saying the thought of sirens going off at night will make him “start drinking again” to deal with it.

Months later on 10/24/16, an engineering study was conducted that discovered the flood warning systems were outdated and inadequate but the commissioner court only doubled down. Commissioner Reeves even stated that there was no need to update the system because people would notice the river rising faster than a system could. While Commissioner Baldwin added that the idea of an up-to-date flood warning system was “a little extravagant for Kerr County”.

Later on in 2017 despite Comal County implementing a state-of-the-art river gauge and siren system, Kerr County Commissioner Court continued to make excuses why they don’t need a similar siren system. Commissioner Reeves added that the camps have “a very good system of letting downriver if there’s a rise … they’re phoning their competitors or colleagues downriver and letting them know what happened.” The fact that eight years later, Camp Mystic would be washed away BECAUSE Kerr County lacked an up-to-date and formal siren system, makes these statements even more revolting.

And finally in 2021 after 5 years of avoiding installing an up-to-date siren system, Kerr County was given $5.1 million thanks to the Biden Administration. But not only do they refuse to spend it but they decide to sit on it so it doesn’t go to blue states like California which has “values that we in Kerr County don't agree with.”

Tragedy strikes

With a flood warning system outdated even in 2016 and dependent on people warning each other, the July 4th flood perfectly hit Kerr County’s blind spots. The National Weather Service did warn of flooding in central Texas on the night of July 3rd but underestimated just how much rain would fall. In the early hours of July 4th, the Guadalupe River rose 26 feet in 45 minutes. [2]

Because of its outdated flood warning system, Kerr County was in the dark for 3 hours and 21 minutes [3]. The mayor of Kerrville, Kerr County’s biggest city, even states he was not aware of the flood warnings till 5:30 am. Ultimately it was Kerr County Commissioner Court’s refusal to update their system that allowed the flood to go unnoticed before it was too late.

Trump’s cuts made a bad situation worse

While the July 4th flood tragedy was mainly the chickens coming home to roost, Trump’s cuts didn’t help the situation either. Trump’s cuts on the National Weather Service resulted in vacant key positions in the nearby San Antonio and San Angelo offices. The San Angelo office was lacking a senior Hydrologist who analyzes stream flow and plays a key role in flood responses. Even more damning is the San Antonio office did not have a warning coordination meteorologist who is responsible for coordinating with the media which turned out to be vital considering Kerr County’s inadequite flood warning system. [4]

While this time, it seems Trump’s actions seemed to have a neligable effect, Trump is determined to fix that. Trump’s “let's kill the poors”/One Big Beautiful Bill calls for even MORE CUTS to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration which forecasts extreme weather like floods [5] thanks to Texas’s own Senator, Ted Cruz. This will ensure that if Texas or any state suffers from extreme weather again, it's far more likely to be a tragedy!

The moral of the Texas Flood is that negligence and cuts can result in tragedy. Because Kerr County refused to update its systems for nearly a decade, they were in the dark for over 3 hours as the Guadalupe River overflooded, resulting in over 100 people dead. Similarly, Trump’s cuts took away a vital backup warning system for Central Texas, leaving residents with no time to evacuate before it was too late. Due to both Kerr County’s negligence and Trump’s cuts, this tragedy was allowed to unfold.

sources:

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/texas/comments/1ltkzgh/we_have_floods_all_the_time_and_small_town/ or https://docs.google.com/document/d/10yFv51yzyoTgWn1LYkbyL_U7K-70dZ3YD6aD_Ev30L0/edit?usp=sharing in case the reddit page is taken down

[2] https://www.npr.org/2025/07/06/nx-s1-5458512/texas-flash-flood-weather-forecast

[3] https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/08/texas-weather-service-warning-kerr-county/

[4] https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/national-weather-service-nws-staff-cuts-trump-budget-texas-floods-rcna217139

[5] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/07/ted-cruz-trump-weather-forecasting-cuts