Harrowing stories of rescue emerge from Texas floods
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Texas, national weather service and FEMA
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Texas, Flash flood
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More than 111 people have died across six counties after flash flooding from heavy rain began affecting the state last week.
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.
Viral posts promoted false claims that cloud seeding, a form of weather modification, played a role in the devastation. Meteorologists explain it doesn't work that way.
President Donald Trump travels to Texas on Friday amid growing questions about how local officials responded to the devastating floods, as well as questions about the federal response -- including FEMA's fate -- that he has so far avoided.
"Let's put an end to the conspiracy theories and stop blaming others," Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said in a statement.
This is false. It is not possible that cloud seeding generated the floods, according to experts, as the process can only produce limited precipitation using clouds that already exist.
More than 100 people have been confirmed dead since July 4, when the Guadalupe River in central Texas swelled overnight and triggered flash floods that swept through an area known locally as “Flash Flood Alley.
See maps and photos as Texas flooding leaves some communities with major damage. Camp Mystic all-girls camp is among the sites heavily impacted by the flash floods.