The Trump administration pushed back Sunday on criticism of the National Weather Service's initial forecasting and its staffing levels ahead Central Texas' catastrophic flooding. The big picture: The storm that's killed at least 80 people brought federal cuts to NOAA's NWS under scrutiny after it emerged that two Texas NWS offices were missing key staff at the time,

The NWS lost almost 600 workers in February amid cuts spearheaded by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

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

DOGE cut hundreds of jobs at the NWS, but experts who spoke to WIRED say the agency accurately predicted the state's weekend flood risk.

As searchers continue to look for victims in the deadly flash flooding in Texas, officials are answering questions about the weather forecasts ahead of and during the storm.