President Donald Trump and Texas Republicans criticized the media on Friday for questioning whether more could have been done to warn people about flooding that killed 120 people in central Texas last weekend.
During a visit to Kerr County, Texas, the president and allies including Rep. Chip Roy, who represents the area, pushed back on scrutiny over the government response to the floods.
“The governor said it best when he said that pointing fingers is for losers,” Roy said. “This state is about looking forward, and we’ll figure out how to make our systems the best they can be. But importantly, when you see 26 feet of water rising a foot per minute, don’t go around pointing fingers.”
Officials and volunteers are continuing to search for the 160 people who remain missing from the flooding that ripped through central Texas nearly a week ago. The president toured the damage and met with responders, victims and volunteers before a roundtable with other officials, including Gov. Greg Abbott, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, first lady Melania Trump and Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz.
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When asked what he had to say to families who were upset that alerts didn’t go out sooner, potentially at the expense of lives, Trump praised the government’s response and admonished the reporter who asked.
“I think everyone did an incredible job under the circumstances,” he said. “I just have admiration for the job that everybody did. Only a bad person would ask a question like that. To be honest with you, I don’t know who you are, but only a very evil person would ask a question like that.”
Officials have been adamant that alerts went out in a timely fashion. But Abbott later discussed what changes could be made for the future.
“We’re going to work on alerts,” he said. “We’re going to work on every single solution to make sure things like this don’t happen again, not just in this community, but in other river basins across the state also. So we will work to get it right.”
There has been continued finger-pointing over the tragedy, including scrutiny over the National Weather Service’s forecasts and the alert systems in place. In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd, who was at the roundtable, said that a forecast from NWS underestimated how much rain would fall on what a local official called the most dangerous river valley in the country. Warnings were issued by the NWS hours before the deadly flooding ensued, but the earliest warning was still after midnight, when many were sleeping.
The Trump administration has gutted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as part of its effort to reshape the federal workforce. Many federal weather-related efforts have been shuttered.
However, the local NWS office had staff on hand at the time of the flooding, an official told NOTUS on Sunday, and the NWS alerts went out on time.
The Trump administration has forcefully denied that NWS cuts could have in any way contributed to the disaster.
“Blaming President Trump for these floods is a depraved lie, and it serves no purpose during this time of national mourning,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday. “Here are the facts. In the lead up to this tragic natural disaster, the National Weather Service did its job. Despite unprecedented rainfall, the National Weather Service executed timely and precise forecasts and warnings.”
The president signed an emergency disaster declaration on July 6, making federal funding and resources available. But long-term federal funding remains in the balance. In a deviation from previous presidents, Trump has yet to sign a hazard mitigation funding request, which would authorize additional funding to the state for preventive measures.
“It’s a bad situation, and you can never say, ‘Oh, it’s going to be bigger, better, stronger.’ So many lives have been lost, you can’t say that,” Trump said. “But we’re going to make it. We’re going to make it back. We’re going to make it good again.”
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