Ted Cruz Gutted NOAA. Then Texas Flooded.

By: Ruination

Date: July 2025

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🌪️ When the Waters Rose, the Warnings Were Gone

Over 100 Texans are dead. Families swept away. Homes destroyed. Emergency systems overwhelmed.

And while extreme weather triggered this tragedy, politics helped deliver it.

In late 2024, Senator Ted Cruz authored and inserted a provision into Trump’s “Big Atrocious Bill” that eliminated $150 million in funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) — the very agency responsible for forecasting, warning, and saving lives during extreme weather.

When Cruz helped pass that bill, here’s what got cut:

• Advanced flood forecasting models

• Modernized radar systems

• Emergency alert upgrades

• Public-facing meteorologist positions across key Texas regions

Just months later, those cuts became fatal.

🚨 San Antonio’s Warning Silence

In early 2025, Paul Yura, the long-serving Warning Coordination Meteorologist (WCM) in NOAA’s Austin/San Antonio office, retired. That position was critical — it connected complex flood forecasts directly to local emergency managers, helping them issue public alerts, evacuations, and school closures.

But after Cruz’s cuts, the WCM role was frozen. No replacement was hired.

So when floodwaters surged through San Antonio, Kerrville, and surrounding counties last week, there was no one to translate NOAA data into life-saving action. Multiple city and county officials later stated that they didn’t receive clear or urgent warnings in time to respond.

🩸 One Political Decision. Over 100 Dead.

This was not just a failure of infrastructure. It was a failure of leadership.

Ted Cruz:

• Authored the NOAA defunding language

• Helped push it through Congress with minimal debate

• Defended it as “draining the scientific swamp” in a March 2025 press conference

But Texans paid the real price.

📢 Accountability Starts Now

• NOAA must be fully refunded immediately.

• The San Antonio office must rehire its WCM.

• And Ted Cruz must be held accountable — at the ballot box and in the court of public opinion.

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Ruination

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