Key positions at National Weather Service offices across Texas are vacant, sowing doubt over the state’s ability to respond to natural disasters as rescuers comb through the flood-ravaged Hill Country.

NWS says Flash Flood Warnings were issued on July 3 and early July 4 in Central Texas, giving more than three hours of warning.

The White House is defending the National Weather Service and accusing some Democrats of playing politics in the wake of devastating floods in Texas.

Sen. Chuck Schumer is pressing the NWS’s watchdog to probe whether Trump’s cuts worsened the recent catastrophe.

Officials in Texas are casting blame on the National Weather Service (NWS) for failing to forecast catastrophic flooding that has killed 24 people. NWS was among the government agencies targeted by the Trump administration in its effort to gut the federal bureaucracy,

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cut hundreds of jobs as the National Weather Service earlier this year.

"A lot of the weather forecast offices now are not operating at full complement of staff," said the former lead of NOAA.

DOGE cut hundreds of jobs at the NWS, but experts who spoke to WIRED say the agency accurately predicted the state's weekend flood risk.

Some experts say staff shortages might have complicated forecasters’ ability to coordinate responses with local emergency management officials.

With hurricane season underway and jobs still open at the National Weather Service, Alief native Matt Moreland will serve as meteorologist-in-charge.