The Texas Floods - Holding to Account

On the morning of the 4th of July, when Texas families should have been waking up to plans for BBQs with friends, running through the sprinkler, watching fireworks after dark on the football field, instead they awoke to flash floods and missing loved ones. And as we step back to assess the damage, one thing is for certain: no voter, no child, no resident is to blame for what happened in the past 48 hours. They were victims and they were innocent of the danger racing toward their homes as they slept.

First responders deliver people to a reunification center after flash flooding in the area, Friday, July 4, 2025, in Ingram, Texas - Eric Gay, the Associated Press

But legislators don't get off so easy.

According to the New York Times, as Texas officials appeared to blame the National Weather Service for inconclusive forecasting, "crucial positions" went unfilled due to lack of funding which would have helped better prepare locals for a dangerous weather event. And while the Times focused in on issues with taxpayer funding, I'd step back from that if I were you. Sure, taxpayers don't want to pay taxes (who does?). But when they're being told not to pay their taxes by public officials, when they're seeing suits dance on TV and give the thumbs-up for the cameras (to the tune of “YMCA”), when they're hearing the President of the United States tell them they're "winning, winning, winning" at the passage of a brand-new bill set to “save” America, why wouldn't they believe that? Their friends believe that. Their neighbors believe that. Their church believes that.

But just this week the new "Big Beautiful Bill," passed by the Senate, the House, and signed by President Trump on the very day the Texas floods raged through voters' homes, proposed to give no funding to weather research, or laboratories, or climate laboratories, including tornado and severe storm research.

But it goes so much deeper than that.

Because hidden inside the pages of the bill is an overall rescission of almost everything pertaining to weather, climate, and protections.

• That's $32,500,000 taken away from data-collection

• That's $2,600,000,000 taken away from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s work with tribes, non-profits, and schools

• That's $200,000,000 taken away from NOAA's ability to repair and replace facilities and labs

In February the Trump Administration fired 586 probationary employees from NOAA, including 108 from the National Weather Service (NWS), where they were already understaffed with more than 600 vacancies. Another 500 employees, including 172 NWS employees, were put on administrative leave.

"Which means that hundreds of operational personnel who usually staff the 122 NWS forecast offices, 13 River Forecast Centers, and two tsunami warning centers will disappear overnight." - NWS Employees Organization General Counsel Richard Hirn

Texas was already bracing for an early hurricane season vastly understaffed, where as many as 44% of positions were vacant due to federal cuts, including firings and mass early retirements with payoff packages from the federal government.

And while these funding cuts feel abrupt and unfair, they should come as no surprise. The current administration has long planned to dismantle NOAA and its counterparts, as referenced in Project 2025.

"The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) should be dismantled and many of its functions eliminated, sent to other agencies, privatized, or placed under the control of states and territories." - Project 2025

"Break Up NOAA...(which consists of) The National Weather Service, the National Ocean Service, the Ocean and Atmospheric Research, the National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the Office of Marine and Aviation Operations and NOAA Corps. Together, these form a colossal operation that has become one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future U.S. prosperity." - Project 2025

"NOAA today boasts that it is a provider of environmental information services, a provider of environmental stewardship services, and a leader in applied scientific research." - Project 2025

"Studies have found that the forecasts and warnings provided by the private com­panies are more reliable than those provided by the NWS." - Project 2025

But documents like Project 2025 and the Big Beautiful Bill wouldn't matter if citizens had lawmakers they could rely on to tell them the truth. But we didn't have that either. In 2024, as meteorologists tracked the advance of Hurricanes Milton and Helene, they were targeted with conspiracy theories, abuse, and death threats, stoked by Donald Trump.

"I have had a bunch of people saying I created and steered the hurricane, there are people assuming we control the weather. I have had to point out that a hurricane has the energy of 10,000 nuclear bombs and we can’t hope to control that. But it’s taken a turn to more violent rhetoric, especially with people saying those who created Milton should be killed." - Katie Nickolaou, Michigan-based meteorologist

Michael Flynn, a former national security advisor to Donald Trump, stated in a video that "Hurricane Helene was an attack caused by weather manipulation," while Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted, "Yes, they can control the weather. It's ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can't be done." On July 5th, a day after the historic floods, Greene tweeted that she intends to introduce a bill aimed at tackling “weather modification.”

So in a moment of crisis for which we were unprepared, we had few staff behind the desks, fewer weather balloons in the sky to predict the forecast, billions in funding cuts, and a government telling us in sound bites, tweets, and TikToks to distrust science and the weather, and certainly to distrust climate change. And this week (currently) more than 50 people are dead in central Texas, including 15 children, and many little girls missing, swept away from their bunks at summer camp in sleeping bags.

So no, I don't blame the voters. I don't blame the victims. I don't blame the innocent people in their beds. But I sure as hell blame the legislators who paved the way for something like this to happen. Who told us to stop listening to the truth and focus on more important things, like who's playing what sports, or fighting Black History Month at school.

Eric Gay, the Associated Press

And tonight while 50 families lay their heads down without their loved ones, Washington has blood on its hands.

Congress has blood on its hands.

The President of the United States has blood on his hands.

May God have mercy on their souls.

Ellie is an author, editor, and owner of Red Pencil Transcripts, and works with filmmakers, podcasts, and journalists all over the world. She lives with her family just outside of New York City.