Republican Leaders’ Negligence Costs Lives in Texas Floods

When tragedy strikes, political leaders love to hide behind a familiar refrain: “Now is not the time for politics.” But when over 100 lives are lost—many of them children—amid catastrophic floods in Texas, silence isn’t respect. It’s complicity. This is exactly the time to talk politics, because the disaster that swept through the Hill Country wasn’t just about water. It was about willful neglect from their Republican leaders. Hence, when voters choose leaders who value dollars over lives, tragedy isn’t accidental—it’s inevitable.

Flood Warnings Were Issued. The Systems to Deliver Them Weren’t Funded

The Texas Hill Country has long been vulnerable to deadly flash floods. Yet year after year, Republican lawmakers declined to fund warning systems or invest in flood mitigation efforts. House Bill 13, which would have created a statewide disaster alert system, died in the Senate after GOP lawmakers questioned its cost. State Rep. Wes Virdell, who represents Kerr County, who voted no on HB 13 later admitted he might vote differently.

“I can tell you in hindsight, watching what it takes to deal with a disaster like this, my vote would probably be different now,” Virdell said.

Let’s not pretend this was unforeseeable. The National Weather Service issued flood watches and warnings on July 3–4, but thanks to hollowed-out federal agencies and missing local sirens, those alerts never translated into action. 

From Missed Grants to Underfunded Flood Plans: How Texas Leaders Failed to Act

Kerr County had explored installing a warning system in 2017 but shelved it over price. Officials later missed out on a $1 million grant and were still debating funding options as recently as 2023. Why? Because outdoor sirens cost up to $50,000 each. Apparently, that was too expensive. 

“The county had asked the state government for a $1 million grant to be able to put in a system like that, and the state — I think, for eight years — had denied the county that $1 million to be able to do that,” Rep. Castro said. He then added, “In the state of Texas, the governor controls what’s called a rainy day fund that I believe right now has more than $30 billion in it.”

Meanwhile, the Texas Water Development Board identified $54 billion in needed flood-control projects across the state. Lawmakers? They only allocated $669 million. That’s not budgeting. That’s gambling with human lives. And Texas keeps losing.

It gets worse. Texas didn’t even complete a comprehensive statewide flood-risk assessment until last year, despite leading the nation in flood-related deaths. From 1959 to 2019, over 1,000 Texans have died in floods. Many of those deaths occurred in the Hill Country. Yet when it came time to act, state leaders chose to spend billions on border militarization and tax cuts while downplaying the infrastructure needed to keep people safe.

This is not an act of God. It is a failure of government. And the people responsible for this failure need to be named.

While Texans drowned, Republican leaders scrambled to save political face, not lives.

Ted Cruz, a Republican leader, vacationing in Greece during the crisis, called for “retrospection” after slashing weather forecasting funding. Governor Abbott now wants to add emergency alerts to a special session agenda. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says sirens might be ready by next summer. 

However, Texans didn’t need press conferences where their leaders tried to save face because they were negligent with their votes. Their constituents needed functioning sirens in a floodplain and a disaster response system rooted in preparedness. They needed a government that saw them as more than budget line items.

The truth is harsh but necessary: When people vote for leaders who prioritize money over lives, bad things happen. That’s not rhetoric—it’s reality. From Kerr County’s missed opportunities to the Legislature’s underfunding of critical systems, every layer of government failed. And those failures have names, party affiliations, and a long record of putting ideology over safety.

So no, it is not too early to talk politics. It’s too late for more than 100 Texans who should still be alive. What we do now must reflect that loss. Accountability isn’t optional—it’s the only way forward.