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

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.

In the wake of last week’s catastrophic floods in the Texas Hill Country, on Friday Governor Greg Abbott directed the Texas Division of Emergency

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.

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

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.

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.

Some have argued the Trump administration's NWS cuts led to a forecast that underestimated the amount of rain in Kerr County, Texas.

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.

Texas Democratic Reps. Greg Casar and Jasmine Crockett have demanded details and documents from federal agencies tasked with tracking and responding to disasters following the devastating floods in Texas Hill Country,

"FEMA has been really headed by some very good people,” Trump said during a roundtable with local officials, suggesting his administration turned the agency around after sharply criticizing the Biden administration-led FEMA response to flooding in North Carolina in late 2024.