President Donald Trump has indicated wanting to phase out FEMA and have emergency responses be handled by states. Though the president has avoided talking about those plans after the Texas flood.

Q: Is it true that if President Donald Trump hadn’t defunded the National Weather Service, the death toll in the Texas flooding would have been far lower or nonexistent? A: The Trump administration did not defund the NWS but did reduce the staff by 600 people.

People awoke from water rushing around them during the early morning hours of July 4, all along the Guadalupe River in the Texas Hill Country. Residents were seemingly caught off guard, but warnings had been issued days and hours before floodwaters began carrying away homes,

For years, employees say, they've had to do more with less. But the ability to fill in the gaps became strained to the breaking point when the Trump administration began pushing new staffing cuts.

Experts said the NWS did a good job warning about the flooding, but questions remain about whether the cuts played a role.

Harris County, Texas, Judge Lina Hidalgo spoke about flood cleanup efforts in her community and expressed concern over future flood response following cuts to FEMA and the National Weather Service.

Key positions at National Weather Service offices across Texas are vacant, sowing doubt over the state’s ability to respond to natural disasters as rescuers comb through the flood-ravaged Hill Country.

Deadly flood in Texas sparks a debate over whether recent cuts and staffing shortages led to a greater loss of life.

"The reason the Texans had no idea that a giant flash-flood that killed 20 plus people was going to be coming to them was because the Trump regime has defunded not only the National Weather Service but also what’s known as NOAA … both of those things are how we predict weather events like these," the video’s narrator said.

Here's what to know about the deadly flooding, the colossal weather system that drove it and ongoing efforts to identify victims.