Texas flooding live updates: nearly 90 people killed, including 27 campers and counsellors from girls camp

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White House press secretary says critics of flood warnings should be 'deeply ashamed'

Here are the full comments from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, attacking those who have questioned whether the National Weather Service was adequately prepared to warn of the deadly flash floods in Texas.

She cited “some members of the media” as well as Democratic Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, who has reportedly called for an investigation from the Commerce Department inspector general into whether the National Weather Service had enough staff in offices that would have forecast the storms.

“Blaming President Trump for these floods is a depraved lie, and it serves no purpose during this time of national mourning. Here are the facts: in the lead-up to this tragic natural disaster, the National Weather Service did its job despite unprecedented rainfall,” Leavitt said.

She continued:

To any person who has deliberately lied about these facts surrounding this catastrophic event, you should be deeply ashamed. At this time, the administration’s focus will be … on giving the victims in their communities the support they deserve during these recovery efforts in this tragic time. May God bless the great people of Texas, especially the parents who have lost their children. President Trump loves you. We are praying for you, and he will be traveling to see you later this week.

Trump will travel to Texas later this week, says White House

Karoline Leavitt also said that Donald Trump will travel to Texas later this week, but she didn’t provide further details about the timing of the trip.

President Trump loves you. We are praying for you, and he will be traveling to see you later this week.

She added shortly after that the trip was tentatively scheduled to go forward on Friday.

But of course, we want to do it at the most appropriate time on the ground for state and local officials. We don’t want to interrupt the recovery efforts.

'Blaming Trump for floods is a depraved lie,' says White House

“Blaming President Trump for these floods is a depraved lie,” Karoline Leavitt said at the White House briefing, accusing the Democrats of weaponizing the disaster. “It serves no purpose during this time of national mourning,” she said.

People have not been accusing Trump of being responsible for the flooding. Experts and others have been questioning whether the cuts to the federal workforce carried out by his administration, including to thousands to the the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - the agency that oversees the National Weather Service – leaving many weather offices understaffed, led to a failure by officials to accurately predict the severity of the floods and issue appropriate warnings ahead of the storm.

As we reported earlier, ahead of the floods, the NSW office near San Antonio, which oversees warnings issued in Kerr County, for example, had one key vacancy - a warning coordination meteorologist, who is responsible for working with emergency managers and the public to ensure people know what to do when a disaster strikes. The person who served in that role for decades was among hundreds of NSW employees who accepted early retirement offers and left the agency at the end of April.

Death toll across Texas reaches 89

As we heard earlier, the death toll in Kerr County rose to 75, bringing the total number of victims from the flash flooding in Texas to 89. Here is the latest count from the affected areas:

• Kerr County - 75 people, including 27 children

• Travis County - six people

• Burnet County - three people

• Kendall - two people

• Williamson - two people

• Tom Green - one person

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is due to brief reporters shortly and will surely face questions about the deadly flash flooding in Texas. We’ll be covering her briefing in detail over on our US politics live blog, and I’ll also bring you any relevant lines here.

'Anything Texas needs, the answer is yes,' Trump tells Cruz

At the press conference earlier, Ted Cruz said he had spoken to Donald Trump, who told him that anything Texas needs “the answer is yes”.

Answering questions about whether the warning system in place had been adequate, the senator said there will be a period of retrospection, and batted away what he called “partisan finger pointing”.

He also said the idea that Doge cuts to the National Weather Service had impacted the warning system was “contradicted by the facts”, saying extra staff were working at the time.

We reported his comments here.

Louisiana’s governor Jeff Landry has sent 14 swift-water rescue personnel to Texas to assist in the flood response, including a task force leader, three boat operators, three boat bowmen and three boat support personnel.

“Louisiana will always answer the call to help our neighbors in need. Our first responders are among the best in the nation, and these men and women will always step up when disaster strikes,” Landry said in a statement. “Louisiana stands with Texas, and we are committed to doing whatever it takes to assist in their recovery.”

The day so far

• The desperate search for missing campers, vacationers and residents continues after catastrophic flooding over the 4 July weekend killed at least 82 people in Texas, including more than two dozen campers and counsellors from an all-girls Christian camp.

• Texas senator Ted Cruz has pushed back on what he called “partisan finger-pointing” that has blamed staff cuts at the National Weather Service for failures to predict the intensity of the rainfall last week over the Guadalupe river headwaters. But he did say that, in hindsight, it was regrettable that the most vulnerable areas hadn’t been evacuated.

• It comes as some experts are questioning whether cuts to the federal workforce by the Trump administration, including to thousands to the the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - the agency that oversees the National Weather Service – leaving many weather offices understaffed, led to a failure by officials to accurately predict the severity of the floods and issue appropriate warnings ahead of the storm. Ahead of the floods, the NSW office near San Antonio, which oversees warnings issued in Kerr County, had one key vacancy - a warning coordination meteorologist, who is responsible for working with emergency managers and the public to ensure people know what to do when a disaster strikes. The person who served in that role for decades was among hundreds of NSW employees who accepted early retirement offers and left the agency at the end of April.

• Ten campers and one counsellor from Camp Mystic remain missing, according to Larry Leitha, the Kerr County sheriff. An earlier statement from the camp confirmed that some 27 campers and counsellors were dead after the flooding.

• Slow-moving thunderstorms are expected to continue through early afternoon across parts of the Texas Hill Country, with flash flooding likely, according to the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center. In its latest update, the center reported that thunderstorms producing localized rainfall rates over 3 inches per hour are ongoing and expected to continue into the early afternoon.

• The National Weather Service office for Austin and San Antonio also issued a flash flood warning for Llano County in south-central Texas this morning. As of 10:01am CT, the agency said that radar indicated thunderstorms producing heavy rainfall across the area. Between 1 and 4 inches of rain have fallen already, with an additional 1 to 3 inches possible.

Edward Helmore

Texas senator Ted Cruz was in Kerr County today talking to reporters about the warnings that were issued before the Guadalupe river burst its banks after heavy rains, killing 82 including 27 children.

Amid criticisms of the lack of warnings about the severity of the storm to local residents, Cruz said:

Now, obviously, most people at 1am and 4am are sleeping, so I think we will have a reasonable conversation about are there any ways to have earlier detection? Some of the limits of the flash flood are that they’re very difficult because they can arise so quickly. But everyone would agree, in hindsight, if we could go back and do it again, we would evacuate, particularly those in the most vulnerable areas.

He then pushed back on what he called “partisan finger-pointing” that has blamed staff cuts at the National Weather Service for failures to predict the intensity of the rainfall last week over the Guadalupe river headwaters.

Some are eager to point at the National Weather Service and saying that cuts there led to to a lack of warning. I think that’s contradicting by the facts and and if you look in the facts in particular number one and these warnings went out hours before the flood became a true emergency.

It’s worth noting that the National Weather Service Union, which has been very critical of the Doge cuts, has publicly said that they don’t believe that a reduction of staffing had any impact whatsoever on their ability to warn of this event.

Here is a clip featuring timelapse footage provided by a witness shows flood waters rising over a causeway in Kingsland, Texas, and completely submerging it in the span of a few minutes.

The flooding occurred after torrential rain fell in the central Texas area on Friday 4 July, the US Independence Day holiday.

The death toll from catastrophic floods reached at least 80 on Monday, including 28 children, as the search for girls missing from a summer camp continued and fears of more flooding prompted evacuations of volunteer responders.