Key positions at National Weather Service offices across Texas are vacant, sowing doubt over the state’s ability to respond to natural disasters as rescuers comb through the flood-ravaged Hill Country...

"If cuts to FEMA take away that ability, then our people are going to be less safe," he said.

The Texas floods, the first major deadly disaster since Trump took office in January vowing to gut or abolish FEMA, were a stark reminder of the extent to which states lean on the agency during a cri...