As the floodwaters start to go down in central Texas, the destruction is becoming painfully clear, along with a wave of despair, disbelief, and rising rage. At least 82 people have died in the devastating flash floods that started on July 4. This comprises 28 kids. Kerr County is one of the places that was impacted the hardest. The Guadalupe River surged swiftly and devastated the well-known Christian vacation camp Camp Mystic. Authorities have confirmed that they recovered 68 bodies at the camp alone. Ten girls and one camp counselor are still missing, and search and rescue crews are currently hunting for them. They want to identify survivors or give families who are grieving some peace.
But as those families mourn, the attention is fast moving from nature’s anger to people’s actions. A number of individuals in the media and government now think that decisions made by former President Donald Trump over the budget may have made the tragedy worse, if not caused it. People are especially angry about the large cuts that were made to the National Weather Service (NWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) during his past term and are alleged to have persisted during his current term. The New York Times adds that the cuts left hundreds of forecasting offices short-staffed, especially in San Antonio and San Angelo, which are both key headquarters for issuing emergency weather alerts in central Texas.
There were jobs for senior hydrologists, lead meteorologists, and, most critically, meteorologists who coordinated warnings. These are the ones who are intended to send out alerts that save lives when things shift quickly. It is said that one of these jobs in San Antonio became available after the former officeholder took an early retirement package on April 30. This was part of the Trump-era Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which was a contentious program that Elon Musk was involved with.
Some people who don’t like Trump have criticized the timing and severity of these job losses. However, Tom Fahy of the National Weather Service Employees Organization said that some of the gaps were there before Trump entered office again on January 20, 2025. People are still paying more and more attention to the connection between administrative decisions and operational failures. This is especially true since it was revealed that no official evacuation orders were received for Camp Mystic or the communities around it. When questioned directly why there were no orders, Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly answered something that made folks worry: “I can’t answer that.” I don’t know.
AI has changed the conversation in a way that no one predicted. A lot of people spoke about it when Grok, the AI chatbot built by Elon Musk’s company and introduced to X (formerly Twitter), answered “Yes” to a post that asked if budget cuts under Trump led to the deaths of young girls in Texas. The chatbot then said that predictions were off by as much as 50% and that warnings were delayed by a long time because there weren’t enough trained personnel. Grok noted that these were direct results of the DOGE project.
The answer set off a viral firestorm. “God dammit.” Someone wrote, “Grok just said, ‘Yes, Trump and Elon killed those girls.'” Grok said, “Not exactly what I said, but close enough.” “Facts over feelings.” The union later said that the NWS lost roughly 600 workers because of budget cuts. In the days preceding up to the tragedy, many forecasting offices were left with very few staff members.
Musk hasn’t said anything about the flooding in Texas, even if Grok spoke the truth by accident. Instead, he’s been busy promoting his new “America Party” and making fun of how his own AI sounds, stating that Grok has gotten “too woke.” The newest edition of Grok came out on July 4, the same day the flooding began.
Trump made a Major Disaster Declaration on Sunday and said he would go to Kerr County before the week was over. “I just signed a Major Disaster Declaration for Kerr County, Texas, to make sure that our Brave First Responders have the tools they need right away,” he wrote on Truth Social. “God bless Texas and the families!” But a lot of people, especially those who lost kids, don’t find those terms very helpful when they think about what they see as a tragedy that could have been averted.
Camp Mystic, which is now a place of loss and ruin, put out its own mournful statement calling the event “devastating” and praying for the victims and their families. There used to be singing and laughter in the summer air, but now there is just melancholy and silence. The camp’s dorms, where many of the youngest girls lived near the river, are gone now. Rescue personnel are currently making their way through the muddy, debris-filled region in the hopes of finding someone who is still alive.
The water is getting clearer, but the emotional tide is rising, not just in grief but also in anger. All around Texas, families and towns are suffering with a loss that is hard to understand. They also think that the calamity wasn’t merely a natural disaster, but also a lack of leadership, money, and being ready. There are more and more questions, and people demand answers. Right now, the state is depressed and waiting.
