Maxar Technologies, a US-based space technology company, released satellite images on July 8, showing the stark transformation of central Texas and the Guadalupe River region before and after the recent catastrophic floods. The images reveal that areas once covered in greenery have been reduced to barren, muddy wastelands, with countless trees and buildings destroyed.
The floods, which began on July 4, have caused unprecedented destruction, leaving at least 109 people dead and 161 still missing in Kerr County alone.
During a White House press briefing on July 8, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called the floods "an act of God," saying that "It is not the administration's fault that the flood hit when it did." She also emphasized that weather authorities had issued sufficient warnings before the disaster. However, her remarks were met with widespread criticism and online backlash.
According to earlier reports, after US President Donald Trump returned to the White House, he repealed the climate policies of the previous Biden administration, cutting funding and hundreds of staff positions from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and its subsidiary, the National Weather Service (NWS).
US media reported that several positions, including weather warning coordinators, have remained vacant since April at the NWS branch in central Texas. Some Democrats have criticized these measures as a "catalyst" for the Texas floods.
According to NWS data, an average of 113 people have died annually from floods in the US over the past decade, accounting for approximately one-sixth of all weather-related fatalities.
This flood has been described as one of the most severe in the US in the past century.
(Video source: CMG)
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