Topline
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has fired back against experts and officials who claim her recent policy changes at the Federal Emergency Management Agency left search and rescue teams hamstrung and crippled a disaster call center in the days following deadly flash floods that killed at least 130 people in central Texas.
A painted broken heart is seen near Camp Mystic along the Guadalupe River in Hunt, Texas, on July 8, ... More
Noem on Sunday railed against reporting by the New York Times that found “nearly two-thirds” of all distress calls to FEMA from flood victims went unanswered due to staff cuts and a CNN report that found policies she'd implemented, namely a change that required her personal sign-off on any spending over $100,000, delayed the deployment of search and rescue crews to the area.
Noem called the reports, which sourced unnamed former and current FEMA employees, false and "inappropriate," and said the agency's response to the Texas floods was "the best response we’ve seen out of the federal government in many, many years."
“The individuals who are giving you information out of FEMA, I’d love to have them put their names behind it because anonymous attacks to politicize the situation is completely wrong,” Noem said on “Meet The Press.”
Sources inside FEMA also told CNN the new policies delayed a request from Texas first responders the state for aerial imagery to help in search and rescue.
Claims FEMA failed Texas in the days after the flood are part of a partisan blame game that has cast fault on everyone from local taxpayers to federal agencies, including FEMA, the National Weather Service and President Donald Trump himself.
State officials initially tried to put fault on the NWS early on in the flood recovery efforts, claiming the agency did not properly convey the storm's threat, but experts have since said the warnings issued were as timely and accurate as could have been expected.
Some former NWS officials told the Times, however, that while the warnings may have been up to par, cuts to the NWS and early retirement incentives doled out under Trump led to staffing shortages in the central Texas office that may have impacted the agency’s ability to communicate with local authorities in the hours after the warnings were issued.
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Kerr County officials knew for a decade that a better flood warning system would serve the local community well, meeting minutes obtained by the Texas Tribune show, but one was not in place when last week’s floods hit the state for several reasons. One reason: Texas state officials repeatedly rejected requests from Kerry County to pay for such a warning system, estimated to cost about $1 million, and turned away the county’s applications at least three times between 2017 and 2024 for various reasons, the New York Times reported. Another: Local officials also failed to act when they were given $10 million under the pandemic-era American Rescue Plan Act money in 2021 and, instead of using it on storm-related infrastructure as the grant encouraged, allocated it to other public safety projects, county employee raises and a new walking path, according to the Texas Tribune. Kerr County’s own voters are getting blamed, as well, by local officials who say there was little public support for a system: “Generally everybody’s for doing something until it gets down to the details of paying for it," Harvey Hilderbran, the former state representative from Kerr County, told the Tribune. It’s unclear how many people could have been saved if Kerr County had a flood warning system, but Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said there “should have been sirens here.” Officials in Kerr County have said they are "committed to a transparent and full review of past actions."
Taking the American Rescue Plan Act money granted to Kerr County back in 2021 at all was a controversial move in the conservative area, which voted for Donald Trump in all three of the last elections. A survey sent to residents about the money showed that 42% of the 180 respondents wanted to reject the $10 million grant altogether, according to the Tribune. Local taxpayers didn't want to be beholden to the Biden administration, with one resident telling Kerr County commissioners, "We don't want to be bought by the federal government, thank you very much. We'd like the federal government to stay out of Kerr County and their money,” the Tribune reported. Another resident asked the commissioners to send all of the money "back to the Biden administration, which I consider to be the most criminal treasonous communist government ever to hold the White House."
"Who's to blame? Know this, that's the word choice of losers," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday responded to a reporter's question about who is at fault for the tragedy. "The way winners talk is not to point fingers. They talk about solutions. What Texas is all about is solutions." Abbott has called for a special legislative session to start later this month to look at how to strengthen the state's future response to flooding including items on flood warning systems and communications, natural disaster preparedness and relief funding.
Rapid rainfall hit central Texas on July 4, pushing Guadalupe River levels more than 32 feet and devastating nearby communities. The rising waters made for the deadliest inland flooding event in Texas in almost 50 years, and the death toll as of Friday accounted for at least 130 people with another 160 still missing. Among the victims are at least 35 children. At least 27 people, including children and counselors, died at a generations-old, all-girls Christian summer camp called Camp Mystic, where former First Lady Barbara Bush was once a counselor. A report by the Washington Post found that Camp Mystic Executive Director Richard “Dick” Eastland did not begin evacuating the camp until more than an hour after he received the NWS' severe flood warning around 1 a.m. on the morning of July 4. The alert, which did not include an evacuation order, prompted Eastland to "assess the situation" with family members and ultimately begin evacuations. He died trying to rescue campers.
Changes to the NWS. Noem said that Trump wants to improve the agency’s warning system and “renew this ancient system that has been left in place with the federal government for many, many years.”