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.

Weather model data shows the National Weather Service had reason to warn of higher flood risks. Still, meteorologists say the agency made reasonable predictions.

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.

In this particular case, we have seen absolutely nothing to suggest that current staffing or budget issues within NOAA and the NWS played any role at all in this event,” Houston-based

CNN’s Brian Todd breaks down the warnings from the National Weather Service ahead of the deadly and catastrophic flooding in the Texas Hill Country.

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.