Some experts say staff shortages might have complicated forecasters’ ability to coordinate responses with local emergency management officials.

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

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.

"A lot of the weather forecast offices now are not operating at full complement of staff," said the former lead of NOAA.

Rachel Maddow highlights reporting in Texas on cuts to the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ahead of the deadly flash flooding. While early indications suggest the cuts did not directly contribute to the disaster,

The White House is defending the National Weather Service and accusing some Democrats of playing politics in the wake of devastating floods in Texas.

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.

NWS says Flash Flood Warnings were issued on July 3 and early July 4 in Central Texas, giving more than three hours of warning.

A study puts the spotlight on Texas as the leading U.S. state by far for flood-related deaths, with more than 1,000 of them from 1959 to 2019