The Week: A Tragedy in Texas

• Please read this newsletter before a district judge enjoins it.

• To call the flash flooding that erupted across central Texas on July 4 a tragedy is to downplay the scope of the cataclysm. Trapped on all sides by high barometric pressure, a freak storm languished over several Texas counties for hours over the Independence Day holiday, dumping billions of gallons of water down on already saturated land. As a result, the placid Guadalupe River burst its banks by upwards of 26 feet in some places, and all in the space of just 90 minutes. One week later, 170 people remain missing or unidentified. At least 121 people died in the storm. It was a disaster. But for some, it couldn’t be just a disaster. Even as the flood waters surged, media outlets and their Democratic allies rushed to blame Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE commission for budget cuts that left the National Weather Service helpless. The meteorological class soon reprimanded their colleagues in the media. Local NWS was fully staffed—indeed, overstaffed, per protocol—during the storm. Warnings were sent out about it twelve hours in advance, and a flash flood warning for the affected counties was issued three hours before it hit. There’s room to criticize local preparedness ahead of the floods, but DOGE’s marginal cuts to executive branch spending—cuts the Senate has yet to even ratify—were not to blame for this catastrophe.

About the Author

NR Editors

NR Editors includes members of the editorial staff of our magazine and website.

• Please read this newsletter before a district judge enjoins it.

• To call the flash flooding that erupted across central Texas on July 4 a tragedy is to downplay the scope of the cataclysm. Trapped on all sides by high barometric pressure, a freak storm languished over several Texas counties for hours over the Independence Day holiday, dumping billions of gallons of water down on already saturated land. As a result, the placid Guadalupe River burst its banks by upwards of 26 feet in some places, and all in the space of just 90 minutes. One week later, 170 people remain missing or unidentified. At least 121 people died in the storm. It was a disaster. But for some, it couldn’t be just a disaster. Even as the flood waters surged, media outlets and their Democratic allies rushed to blame Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE commission for budget cuts that left the National Weather Service helpless. The meteorological class soon reprimanded their colleagues in the media. Local NWS was fully staffed—indeed, overstaffed, per protocol—during the storm. Warnings were sent out about it twelve hours in advance, and a flash flood warning for the affected counties was issued three hours before it hit. There’s room to criticize local preparedness ahead of the floods, but DOGE’s marginal cuts to executive branch spending—cuts the Senate has yet to even ratify—were not to blame for this catastrophe.