FEMA Gutted Before Texas Floods Killed 134
After months of calling for FEMA's elimination, catastrophic Texas floods killed 134 people. Only 12% of FEMA's workforce was available. Search and rescue was delayed 72+ hours because DHS Secretary Noem required personal sign-off on every $100K+ expenditure.
Catastrophic floods struck the Texas Hill Country over the July 4, 2025 weekend, killing at least 134 people. FEMA — which Trump had repeatedly called for eliminating — was in no condition to respond.
The response failures were systemic:
- FEMA began hurricane season with only 12% of its incident management workforce available
- Only 86 FEMA staffers were deployed by Monday night — a fraction of typical disaster response
- Search and rescue teams were not authorized for 72+ hours because DHS Secretary Kristi Noem required personal sign-off on every expenditure over $100,000
- Noem had cancelled call center contracts on July 5, causing FEMA to answer only 36% of calls on July 6 and 16% on July 7
The administration had previously revoked $3 billion in hazard mitigation grants, shifted hundreds of millions from FEMA to immigration detention, and the GAO confirmed FEMA violated federal law six times by withholding or delaying congressionally-approved disaster funds. Noem's personal approval bottleneck delayed 1,034 contracts, grants, or disaster assistance awards.