The Texas floods were no 'natural' disaster

Growing up in Texas, many of my summers were spent at summer church camps just like Camp Mystic, where 27 girls died in the recent flash floods. Over 130 people in central Texas have been confirmed dead overall.

Had I been just a few years younger, it’s hard not to feel like I could’ve been one of those girls tragically lost.

But this tragedy was no “natural” disaster — it was political.

Texans have gotten used to “unprecedented” natural disasters. When I was growing up, we practically never got snow; now winter storms have become the norm. Hurricanes and extreme heat have become more frequent and more dangerous. And intense rain, which causes flash floods, is worsening.

The evidence is overwhelming: These trends are all happening because of climate change, caused by human pollution. And to stay safe, we need to constantly study the climate to predict these disasters and prevent the worst from happening.

Better warning systems may or may not have been effective for such an unexpected flood. Yet it seems unthinkable that better funding could not have helped prevent this tragedy.

For one, the Guadalupe River is prone to flooding, but state officials have blocked efforts for years to use Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds to install early warning systems along it.

Unfortunately, many of our politicians are outright hostile to funding the agencies that do this vital work — or any kind of public service. Just a few months ago, the Trump administration made sweeping cuts to both the National Weather Service (NWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

As I write, six out of 27 positions at the NWS Austin-San Antonio office, which covers the affected Kerr County, are listed as vacant, including the position for warning coordination meteorologist. (The previous coordinator took the Department of Government Efficiency’s offer of early retirement.)

At NOAA, the cuts have affected hundreds of scientists and reduced the agency’s ability to launch weather balloons to more accurately analyze weather patterns.

Texas Republicans are still defending these cuts.

Before all the bodies had even been discovered, state Rep. Briscoe Cain (R-128) tweeted, “We must not allow this great tragedy to be used to grow government.” And Sen. Ted Cruz personally eliminated $150 million for NOAA’s climate change research in the GOP budget (the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill”).

Part of the problem is that public goods like the NWS are “invisible” — that is, you don’t notice them when they’re working well. This makes them uniquely vulnerable to calls for budget cuts, because who’s going to notice understaffing at the NWS?

But when these cuts go through — and understaffed agencies fail to serve their purpose — people say the services don’t work. And there are calls for more budget cuts.

The Trump administration’s proposed 2026 budget for NOAA, for example, cuts the agency’s budget by 26%. And despite widespread complaints that FEMA wasn’t answering calls from Texans during the disaster, the administration has proposed eliminating the agency or devolving it to the states.

Public services are caught in a lose-lose situation: Regardless of their performance, they face calls for budget cuts.

But the politicians that spew this rhetoric often aren’t interested in having efficient public services or reducing the federal debt. While they cry that there’s no money to fully fund and staff environmental agencies, they don’t think twice about passing a Pentagon budget that’s now over $1 trillion a year, or extending trillions of dollars worth of tax cuts for the wealthy.

Attending summer camps are some of my fondest memories from growing up. But for hundreds of families in Texas, that experience has become a nightmare.

It didn’t have to be this way — and we can still change course.

Public services can prevent and mitigate disasters, but they’re being prevented from doing so by politicians like President Donald Trump and Sen. Cruz, who’d rather fund tax breaks for the wealthy and the war machine.

We need to change the rhetoric around public services in this country, and shine a light on all the good “invisible” services do.

• Chisom Okorafor is a Henry A. Wallace Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies