Q: Is it true that if President Donald Trump hadn’t defunded the National Weather Service, the death toll in the Texas flooding would have been far lower or nonexistent? A: The Trump administration did not defund the NWS but did reduce the staff by 600 people.

Former federal officials and outside experts have warned for months that President Donald Trump’s staffing cuts to the National Weather Service could endanger lives.

With the number of confirmed dead in the flooding disaster in Texas topping 100 people and rising, questions are being asked about what more could have been done to limit the death toll.

For years, employees say, they've had to do more with less. But the ability to fill in the gaps became strained to the breaking point when the Trump administration began pushing new staffing cuts.

The first weather emergency alert sent by the National Weather Service with urgent language instructing people to "seek higher ground now" was sent at 4:03 a.m. local time.

Democrats criticize Trump's cuts to the National Weather Service and his approach to climate change after at least 59 people died in major Texas floods that occurred over the July 4th holiday.