Flood maps of Camp Mystic produced by FEMA did not put around 17 buildings in the path of the waters, NPR reported on Sunday.
The cabin at Camp Mystic, which housed the youngest campers and sustained the most losses, was in an area designated by FEMA as an extreme flood hazard.
First Street, an NYC-based company that models climate risks, found that at least 2,560 homes in hard-hit Kerr County were at imminent risk of flooding along the Guadalupe River. With data that the private company gathered, it found that more than 4,500 homes were at risk.
FEMA officials cautioned that companies like First Street use different data, and also cautioned that its maps must undergo due process to be adopted by local governments.
However, NPR reported that various lobbying groups, like homeowners associations, have pushed Congress for less flood regulations. Though the groups told NPR they were trying to keep home affordable, it could result in people not being able to claim flood insurance because their homes are not on federal maps.
In places like Texas, where state and local officials have dragged their feet on passing emergency preparedness measures, the inaccurate maps could kill many people.
"In Texas, we don't think the floodplains are that serious," said Jim Blackburn, co-director of the Severe Storm Prevention, Education and Evacuation from Disaster Center at Rice University in Houston. "We treat floodplains as a kind of good old boy, kind of wink and nod, [as though] it's environmental red tape. And that's going to get a lot of people killed."
FEMA's budget issues under Kristi Noem
Beyond mapping issues, which FEMA has reportedly known about for years, the agency had difficulty obtaining funds to deploy resources to flood-stricken central Texas when the waters were still high.
NBC reported that as FEMA tried to deploy rescue teams in central Texas, it ran into a reoad block: US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem mandated that every grant or contract over $100,000 required her personal signature.
Noem did not sign off on deploying additional search and rescue teams until Monday, 72 hours after the flooding began. It was the same day that US President Donald Trump declared a major emergency in Texas.
By Monday evening, 86 FEMA staffers were deployed to Texas, CNN reported, citing internal agency data. By Tuesday, 311 employees were deployed.
For the efforts required for emergency services in Texas, the $100,000 threshold was "pennies", according to CNN.
The arguments about FEMA's role in disaster management in the US come as climate change makes disasters more common and expensive: the US spent $1 billion each on 27 natural disasters, the New York Times reported.
Trump administration moves to "remake" FEMA
At the same time, the Trump administration moves to cut thousands of positions from the federal government.
The National Weather service cut about 15% of its jobs, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration cut 2,000 jobs.
A DHS spokeswoman told CNN said that the Trump Administration was working to help state disaster relief agencies.
“FEMA is shifting from bloated, DC-centric dead weight to a lean, deployable disaster force that empowers state actors to provide relief for their citizens,” McLaughlin told CNN in a statement. “The old processes are being replaced because they failed Americans in real emergencies for decades.”
“DHS is rooting out waste, fraud, abuse, and is reprioritizing appropriated dollars. Secretary Noem is delivering accountability to the US taxpayer, which Washington bureaucrats have ignored for decades at the expense of American citizens.”
In an interview with NBC, Noem said that Trump would rather see FEMA be "remade" rather than entirely dismantled, as the president has previously stated.
“I think the president recognizes that FEMA should not exist the way that it always has been. It needs to be redeployed in a new way, and that’s what we did during this response,” Noem said.
Just last week, Noem called for FEMA to be eliminated during a meeting to recommend changes to the agency.
“We, as a federal government, don’t manage these disasters. The state does. We come in and support them, and that’s exactly what we did in this situation,”
Noem claimed that FEMA "has been slow to respond at the federal level. It’s even been slower to get the resources to Americans in crisis.
“That is why this entire agency needs to be eliminated as it exists today and remade into a responsive agency. We owe it to all the American people to deliver the most efficient and the most effective disaster response.”
But climate and disaster experts say that cuts to FEMA and weather services are harming US citizens.
“We know preparedness saves lives,” said Alice C. Hill, who worked on climate resilience and security issues for the National Security Council during the Obama administration.
“When you make cuts to the Weather Service, that is undermining forecasts. When you cut the collection of data, satellites, all of that will degrade the accuracy of forecasts. And even with a strong forecast, it’s meaningless unless the people who need to hear it, hear it.”
Blackburn says that categorizing natural disasters like the Hill Country floods as rare or unpredictable is further harming citizens and shifting decisions.
"It is happening," he said. "The science is solid. What we need is reasonable decision making based on the best available science and we don't have that right now."