Trump says he’ll visit flood-ravaged Central Texas this week
President Trump confirmed Monday that he will visit Texas on Friday, after more than 100 people have been confirmed dead in catastrophic floods.
The president confirmed the visit to reporters Monday evening, calling the flooding in Central Texas a “terrible event.”
Mr. Trump said Sunday that he is planning on going to Central Texas. He said he would have gone Sunday but he would be “in their way,” referring to rescuers.
Historic rainfall fell last week in Central Texas, with the Guadalupe River rising 25 feet in 45 minutes around 4:30 a.m. on Friday, July 4. At least 84 of the confirmed fatalities are in Kerr County, Texas, including at least 27 at Camp Mystic, a summer camp along the river.
Last week, Mr. Trump signed a disaster declaration for the region.
The death toll is more than Hurricane Harvey, which drenched Houston and Texas’ Gulf Coast with up to 50 inches of rain in some areas over four days and directly led to the deaths of 68 people in the state. Harvey caused more than $150 billion in damage, making it one of the costliest natural disasters in history.
With the July 4 rainfall, a CBS News analysis of the emergency weather alerts in the state of Texas found there were 22 warnings from the National Weather Service for Kerr County and the Kerrville area, where the most catastrophic flooding occurred.
Bob Fogarty, a National Weather Service meteorologist in the San Antonio office, told CBS News that the office had more than its usual staffing due to the oncoming storm. The staffing numbers were also noted by Tom Fahy, the legislative director for the National Weather Service Employees Organization, the union that represents weather service workers.
But Fahy noted that the vacancy rate at both the San Antonio and the San Angelo offices was double what was in January 2025, when Mr. Trump took office. Fahy also said the position of warning coordinator in San Antonio was vacant as of July 4.
When Mr. Trump was asked Sunday if the federal government affected the National Weather Service, he answered, “they didn’t.”
