As the floodwaters in central Texas start to go down, the destruction is becoming painfully clear, along with a wave of despair, disbelief, and rising rage. There have been at least 82 deaths so far in the devastating flash flooding that started on July 4. This comprises 28 kids. Kerr County is one of the places that got hammered the worst. The Guadalupe River surged swiftly and destroyed the famed Christian vacation camp Camp Mystic. Authorities have confirmed that they found 68 remains at the camp. Ten girls and one camp counselor are still missing, and search and rescue crews are currently hunting for them. They want to find those who are still alive or help families who are grieving.
But as those families grieve, the attention is swiftly changing from nature’s anger to what people should do. Many people 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 to the National Weather Service (NWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that were made during his prior term and are alleged to have persisted during his current term. According to the New York Times, the layoffs left hundreds of forecasting offices short-staffed, especially in San Antonio and San Angelo, which are both important places in central Texas for sending out emergency weather alerts.
There were jobs available for senior hydrologists, lead meteorologists, and, most critically, meteorologists in charge of coordinating warnings. These are the ones who are intended to send out alerts that save lives when things shift quickly. After the last person in that job took an early retirement package on April 30, one of those jobs in San Antonio apparently became vacant. This was part of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a program that Elon Musk was involved with and that was controversial during Trump’s presidency.
Some people who don’t like Trump have said that the timing and intensity of these job losses are wrong. But Tom Fahy of the National Weather Service Employees Organization said that some of the holes were there before Trump entered office again on January 20, 2025. People are paying more and more attention to the connection between bad decisions by administrators and operational failures, especially since it came to light that there were no official evacuation orders for Camp Mystic or the areas around it. Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly remarked something that made folks worry when questioned directly why no orders were given: “I can’t answer that.” I don’t have any idea.
In an unexpected way, artificial intelligence has added to the conversation. A lot of people talked about Grok, the AI chatbot built by Elon Musk’s company and added to X (formerly Twitter), when it said “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 forecasts 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 initiative.
The answer set off a viral firestorm. “God damn it.” Someone wrote, “Grok just said, ‘Yeah, Trump and Elon killed those girls.'” Grok said, “Not exactly what I said, but close.” “Facts over feelings.” Later reports from the union said that the NWS lost roughly 600 workers because of budget cuts. In the days coming up to the tragedy, a number of forecasting offices were left with very few staff members.
Grok spoke the truth out of the blue, but Musk hasn’t said anything about the flooding in Texas. Instead, he’s been busy promoting his own “America Party” and making fun of how his AI sounds, stating that Grok has gotten “too woke.” The newest edition of Grok came out on July 4, the same day the floods began.
Trump declared a major disaster on Sunday and said he would go to Kerr County before the week was up. He said on Truth Social, “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.” “God bless Texas and the families!” But for a lot of individuals, especially those who lost kids, those words don’t help much when they think about what they see as a tragedy that could have been avoided.
Camp Mystic, which is now a place of loss and ruin, sent out its own mournful statement calling the event “devastating” and praying for the victims and their families. There used to be singing and laughing in the summer air, but now there is just silence and melancholy. The dorms at the camp, where a lot of the younger girls resided beside the river, are no longer there. Rescue workers are currently making their way through the muddy, debris-filled region in the hopes of finding anyone who is still alive.
The water is getting cleaner, but the emotional tide is rising, not just in sadness but also in anger. Families and cities all around Texas are grappling with a loss that is hard to understand. They also think that the crisis wasn’t merely a natural calamity; it was also a failure of leadership, money, and preparation. There are more and more questions, and we need answers. The state is unhappy and waiting right now.