Many victims of the recent flooding did not have flood insurance when water washed away homes, cars and belongings.

The Department of Homeland Security secretary defended the federal government's response and denied that policy changes slowed the agency's deployment.

Weeks before flash floods devastated the Texas Hill Country, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) participated in the first meeting of a new council to overhaul the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He criticized FEMA as “slow and clunky,” arguing that states are able to respond “more nimbly, more swiftly, more effectively” to disasters.

There are questions over why oversight was eased at Mystic Camp as it expanded in a hazardous floodplain, the AP reported.

Abrahm Lustgarten says the undermining of science, and cuts to FEMA and NOAA, at a time when erratic weather is making disasters more common, should be "extraordinarily concerning" to us.

Rachel Maddow drew parallels Monday between the Trump administration's response to Texas' flooding and George W. Bush's to Hurricane Katrina.

The visit by acting Administrator David Richardson is his first known trip to a disaster site since President Donald Trump made him FEMA’s top official.

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