Texas floods newest: Trump and Melania to tour devastation from ‘once in every 200-year’ occasion that left 121 lifeless

After months of threats to dismantle FEMA, the Trump administration has reportedly shelved the plan (for now).

As Donald Trump prepares for his trip to flood-ravaged Texas, a senior White House official told The Washington Post that no official action is being taken to wind down FEMA.

According to the official, the changes at the agency will likely amount to a “rebranding,” shifting the spotlight to state leaders as the drivers of disaster response.

“You’re already seeing the theory” of the administration’s new approach “taking place in Texas,” the official said.

There were many flash flooding warnings in Kerr County at the start of the July 4 weekend, but those alerts didn’t reach some of the campers and residents who didn’t have cellphone service, who had silenced notifications, or who didn’t have their phones with them.

Emergency alerts are sent out by several agencies on various platforms, but they often do not reach those in danger. Excessive warnings can also cause alert fatigue, leading some to turn off notifications and increase their risk during emergencies.

Flash flooding events can be difficult to predict and broad warnings may be ignored if the dangerous conditions aren’t clearly communicated.

Gustaf Kilander has more:

Democratic Representative Jared Moskowitz is calling for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to be investigated over the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s “delayed” response to the Texas floods.

In a letter to the top lawmakers on the House Committee on Homeland Security and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on Thursday, the Florida lawmaker slammed Noem’s new “cost-control” policy that requires the DHS secretary to approve all expenses over $100,000.

Moskowitz said that it “stripped FEMA of its ability to act in real time and delayed every major aspect of response.”

Read the full letter here:

As Texas lawmakers face scrutiny over allegedly neglecting flood warning systems, Donald Trump is expected to receive a briefing from several of the state’s top officials.

Republican Governor Greg Abbott, Senator John Cornyn and Senator Ted Cruz are expected to fly to their state with the president aboard Air Force One as he heads to survey flood damage in Kerr County.

First Lady Melania Trump will join the president in a roundtable with first responders and local officials in Kerrville. They are also expected to meet with relatives of those killed by the floods.

Trump is also expected to do an aerial tour of some of the hardest-hit areas.

A week after catastrophic flash floods swept through Central Texas, first responders are still sifting through debris to find the missing and recover the dead.

The Independent’s maps reveal the extent of devastation. In the hardest-hit region, Kerr County, authorities revealed 36 children were among the 96 victims in the flood-ravaged county.

President Donald Trump is expected to tour areas struck by the Texas flash floods on Friday as the state comes to terms with a natural disaster that has left hundreds dead and missing.

Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott has repeatedly praised the Trump administration for its response to the tragedy this week, despite the White House having made severe cutbacks to climate and weather agencies, and even as Trump officials continue to argue for the elimination of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The relationship between Abbott and Trump is contrasted to that between the president and California Governor Gavin Newsom, who met Trump in January following devastating wildfires in the Golden State. Trump and Newsom argued over water access during the blaze that destroyed thousands of structures and caused a dozen fatalities.

Gustaf Kilander has more:

President Trump expressed support for emergency flood warning systems after the devastating floods that swept through the Texas Hill Country.

“After having seen this horrible event, I would imagine you’d put alarms up in some form,” the president told NBC News’s Meet the Press. “Where alarms would go up if they see any large amounts of water or whatever it is.”

Trump’s comments came less than a day before his scheduled visit to Kerrville to survey flood damage.

Kerr County officials were repeatedly denied state funding for an emergency flood warning system, a new report states.

County officials alerted the Federal Emergency Management Agency in a 220-page “hazard mitigation” report in October that it was “likely” that deadly flooding would occur “in the next year,” according to The New York Times.

Officials outlined a possible solution: a flood warning system that could alert residents to rapidly rising waters.

The cost of such a system was estimated at less than $1 million, and they noted that FEMA had grant programs that could pay for it.

Between 2017 and 2024, the newspaper identified at least three instances where Kerr County officials sought funding for a flood warning system but were denied by the state.