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

Key positions at National Weather Service offices across Texas are vacant, sowing doubt over the state’s ability to respond to natural disasters as rescuers comb through the flood-ravaged Hill Country.

The White House is defending the National Weather Service and accusing some Democrats of playing politics in the wake of devastating floods in Texas.

It's never a good time to undercut weather forecasting and emergency response," Pete Buttigieg said, reflecting on the devastating floods in Kerr County, Texas.

Texas hydrologists working with the National Weather Service say they recognized the conditions last Thursday that could lead to catastrophic flooding on the Guadalupe River.And they say, based on past events,

National Weather Service has issued a flood watch for the areas of Central Texas hit most by the deadly flooding over Fourth of July weekend.

There's no sense in finger-pointing over whether or not alerts went out fast enough in Texas, said Landry. As she sees it, preparing for the weather comes down to knowing the landscape where you live and planning out what to do if disaster strikes. "You have to be aware and prepared," she said.

The survival of people in local camps and low-lying areas depended not on official evacuations but on whether they were paying attention, on their own, to weather alerts in the middle of the night.