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The Trump administration pushed back on allegations that cuts to the federal workforce hampered its response to deadly Texas flash floods at the weekend, as the death toll climbed to nearly 90 and the search for survivors continued into its fourth day.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that National Weather Service offices in San Angelo and San Antonio, Texas, were “fully staffed” during the catastrophic flooding.
“Many Democrat elected officials are trying to turn this into not a political game and it is not,” said Leavitt, speaking to reporters from the White House. “It is a national tragedy and the administration is treating it as such.”
Earlier on Monday, Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the Senate, called on the commerce department’s acting inspector general to investigate whether staffing shortages at NWS offices in Texas contributed to the deadly tragedy.
Donald Trump’s administration has slashed thousands of jobs from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the agency that oversees the National Weather Service, leading to questions about whether staff shortages had resulted in a lack of adequate warnings.
The US president planned to visit Texas this week, likely on Friday, Leavitt said.
A NWS spokeswoman said the local offices “had additional forecasters on duty” during the holiday weekend and “all forecasts and warnings were issued in a timely manner”. The offices were also “able to provide decision support services to local partners”.
US Senator Ted Cruz of Texas weighed in on Monday as the search for the missing continued. Authorities have not cited a figure for the total number of missing persons because so many people were camping along the river for the holiday weekend.
“This is not a time for partisan finger pointing and attacks,” said Cruz, adding that “there will naturally be a period of retrospection” after search and rescue efforts and rebuilding efforts were completed.
Camp Mystic, the Christian summer girls camp that was inundated by floodwaters, on Monday said in its first public statement since the disaster that 27 campers and counsellors had died, describing it as an “unimaginable tragedy”. Ten campers and one counsellor remain missing.
Torrential downpours began in central Texas on Friday and continued through the July 4 holiday weekend, claiming the lives of 75 people in Kerr County and 14 more in another five of the 20 counties affected.
In the early morning hours of Friday, the Guadalupe River that runs through the Hill Country in central Texas rose by 26ft (8 metres) in 45 minutes, bursting its banks and sweeping everything in its path downriver.
Initial forecasts from the NWS predicted 4-8 inches of rain for Hill Country. The area received as much as 15 inches of rain in the deluge.
The Texas Hill Country, called “flash flood alley”, is marked by narrow, serpentine valleys and steep rocky hillsides that funnel water downstream into nearby creeks and rivers. When heavy rains come, the water cannot soak quickly into the ground because of the area’s thin layer of topsoil overlying limestone and granite.
State and local officials refused to address questions about whether sufficient warnings were given and why people were not evacuated before the floods hit, saying their focus was on rescue and recovery efforts.
More rain continued to fall in the area on Monday. The NWS issued a flood watch for Hill Country and the interstate highway 35 corridor through 7pm local time.
Slow moving thunderstorms were “ongoing”, dropping more than 3 inches of rain an hour, and were expected to continue through the early afternoon, according to the Weather Prediction Center. Some areas could receive as much as 10 inches of rain.
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