Greg Abbott Rebukes Question About 'Blame' As 161 Missing After Texas Flood

Texas Governor Greg Abbott rebuked a question about "blame" during a Tuesday afternoon press conference to announce that more than 160 people are believed to be missing in the aftermath of the flash floods that killed more than 100 over the July Fourth weekend.

Abbott told a reporter: "You asked and I'm going to use your words, 'Who's to blame?' Know this, that's the word choice of losers."

He continued, in part: "Let me explain one thing about Texas. Every square inch of our state cares about football. Every football team makes mistakes. The losing teams are the ones who try to point out who is to blame. The championship teams are the ones who say don't worry about it, we got this."

The Context

Since Friday's devastating floods, there have been multiple attempts to point the finger at an agency responsible for the loss of life—from a lack of staffing at the National Weather Service (NWS) as a result of the Trump administration cuts, to local leaders failing to act swiftly.

Abbott's statement that placing blame was not necessary right now comes after he repeatedly blamed former President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party for issues at the southwest border.

Following a winter storm in February 2021, one month into Biden's term, Abbott place the blame for widespread loss of power on the Green New Deal, which he linked to Biden, despite it not being implemented in Texas.

Then in July 2024, following Hurricane Beryl, Abbott criticized the federal government's response, suggesting the White House had politicized disaster recovery efforts.

What To Know

Abbott was speaking following a helicopter tour of the disaster areas on Tuesday. Many of those who are not accounted for were in Texas' Hill Country but did not register at a camp or hotel, officials said Tuesday.

The lowlands along the Guadalupe River in central Texas are filled with youth camps and campgrounds that are especially popular around summer holidays, which has made it more difficult to know how many people are missing.

The big jump in the number of missing came after authorities set up a hotline for families to call.

"We will not stop until every missing person is accounted for," Abbott said during a news conference in Hunt, Texas, after taking a helicopter tour of the area.

The 161 missing were believed to be in Kerr County, where most of the victims have been recovered, Abbott said.

The governor said President Donald Trump has pledged to provide whatever relief Texas needs to recover.

"He could not stop talking about how sad he was for all the little girls who have lost their lives," Abbott said.

Trump plans to visit the state Friday.

Meanwhile, public officials in charge of finding victims pushed away intensifying questions about who was monitoring the weather and warning that floodwaters were barreling toward camps and homes.

Leaders in Kerr County, where searchers have found 87 bodies, said their first priority is recovering victims, not reviewing what happened in the hours before the flash floods.

"Right now, this team up here is focused on bringing people home," Lieutenant Colonel Ben Baker of the Texas Game Wardens said during a sometimes-tense news conference in which officials were questioned about the timing of their response.

Hope of finding survivors is growing increasingly bleak. Four days have passed since anyone was found alive, officials said Tuesday.

Abbott planned to make another visit Tuesday to Camp Mystic, the century-old all-girls Christian summer camp where at least 27 campers and counselors died during the flood. Officials said Tuesday that five campers and one counselor have still not been found.

Where Were The Warnings?

Questions mounted about what, if any, actions local officials took to warn campers and residents who were spending the July Fourth weekend in the scenic area long known to locals as "flash flood alley."

Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said that sending out warnings isn't "as easy as pushing a button." Answers about who did what and when will come later, public officials said.

Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, the county's chief elected official, said in the hours after the devastation that the county does not have a warning system.

Generations of families in the Hill Country have known the dangers. A 1987 flood forced the evacuation of a youth camp in the town of Comfort and swamped buses and vans. Ten teenagers were killed.

Local leaders have talked for years about the need for a warning system. Kerr County sought a nearly $1 million grant eight years ago for such a system, but the request was turned down by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Local residents balked at footing the bill themselves, Kelly said.

Some camps were aware of the dangers Friday and monitored the weather. At least one moved several hundred campers to higher ground before the floods. But many people didn't move or were caught by surprise.

Abbott said Texas lawmakers would "begin to address" every aspect of the storm to put in place new systems that could prevent deadly incidents in the future.

What People Are Saying

Former NOAA administrator Rick Spinrad, in an interview with CNN on Tuesday morning: "I've talked with any number of my friends in the weather service and colleagues in the commercial weather community and to a person, one of the first questions they asked was, 'Where was the WCM—the warning coordination meteorologist?' I am convinced that the staff cuts that we saw were a contributing factor to the inability of the emergency managers to respond. The staffing was just fine, and the White House has concurred with this, to get the forecast out and to get the watches and warnings issued, but when you send a message there's no guarantee it's being received. So someone needs to follow up, and that's the warning coordination meteorologist—a position that was vacant."

An NOAA spokesperson told Newsweek earlier: "All forecasts and warnings were issued in a timely manner. Additionally, these offices were able to provide decision support services to local partners, including those in the emergency management community."

General Thomas Suelzer, Texas National Guard, told reporters on Tuesday: "The Texas National Guard will stay here working with our federal, state and local partners to search for the missing and help our communities recover."

What Happens Next

Officials said search and rescue efforts were still underway Tuesday afternoon, with multiple local and federal agencies involved across the affected area.

Reporting by the Associated Press contributed to this story.