Ahead of deadly Texas floods, so many warnings from climate scientists were missed

Yahoo

12-07-2025

The July 4 Texas floods continue to unfold, as more than 100 are confirmed dead, and at least 160 are still missing and unaccounted for. A massive recovery effort is underway as the world watches and rightfully questions, 'Could this catastrophic climate disaster have been less deadly and destructive?'
Our current Texas state and national leadership, made up of largely climate change-denying Republicans, have said it is not time for questions of 'blame' when bodies are still being found and others are missing, even when there is no hope of finding any alive. Regardless of federal and local leadership's immediate deflections of those seeking the truth, the time will quickly come for rightful questions of weather predictability, preventability, and accountability, and how there was an abject failure on all points.
Starting in March of this year, climate scientists began ringing the alarm bells for a horrific period of weather in the United States starting in spring because the Northern polar cap had the most melt of ice ever recorded in history. How does this record winter melt impact our weather? The climate scientists stated that the melt, along with warming temperatures, would put an excess of moisture in the atmosphere to feed storms, weaken the jet stream across the US that drives the storms and as a result, cause storms to slow or even stall over certain points, inundating communities with heavy rains. That prediction is reflected in the deadly floods we have seen in Texas, New Mexico, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, and West Virginia, among many others.
And while no one can predict where these devastating storms will take their toll, the increased frequency since the dire predictions earlier this year would certainly cause communities prone to flooding to prepare and increase investments to save lives and properties.
Yet no one in the Trump or Texas Governor Abbott administrations seems to embrace the truths about climate change, nor the warnings coming from climate scientists of winter polar melt and warmer temperature impacts. In fact, the opposite is happening – the administration is stripping weather forecasting and emergency prevention resources. Trump is eliminating certain weather jobs in the Texas areas that are directly related to forecasts and warnings. If those jobs had been filled, it is very likely fewer lives could have been lost.
Media reports have stated that the Texas elected leadership turned down requested funding at least twice in the last 10 years for a warning siren system in the flood-prone Texas counties now dealing with hundreds likely dead. Reports are also coming that despite weather alerts in the early morning hours of July 4, few reached the many impacted, dead or missing. And, sadly, we are also hearing of long delays or no response from emergency services when the floods began in those same early morning hours.
Even as these devastating stories of failure emerge, the Trumpian leadership will likely never take accountability, no matter how costly to lives and economies. Until the people impacted in Texas and across the country hold these leaders accountable, more misery will unfold.
Michael Dru Kelley is a writer, media entrepreneur and a cofounder and a principal LGBTQ+ shareholder of equalpride, publisher of The Advocate. Michael writes often on equality, climate change and is innovating once again in helping people eat cleaner for healthier bodies and planet. Michael can be followed on Instagram @cleanfoodscook and his forthcoming food brand, social handles and cookbook, www.comfortfoodsmadeclean.com. His opinion pieces represent his own viewpoints and not necessarily those of equalpride, or its affiliates, partners, or management.
This article originally appeared on Advocate: Ahead of deadly Texas floods, so many warnings from climate scientists were missed