Former FEMA head responds to praise and criticism of federal response to Texas floods
PBS News Hour - Segments
PBS NewsHour
4.1 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 14 July 2025
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | It has been 10 days since the deadly July 4th flooding in Texas, where at least 132 people died, |
| 0:07.3 | and the search continues for the roughly 160 people that remain missing. |
| 0:12.9 | A new report from the Washington Post found that Camp Mystic did not begin evacuating young campers along the Guadalupe River |
| 0:20.6 | until an hour after a severe flood warning was sent. |
| 0:24.6 | In the meantime, the federal response to this disaster has also come under scrutiny. |
| 0:29.6 | Over the weekend, DHS Secretary Christy Noem responded to allegations |
| 0:34.6 | that FEMA cutbacks meant delays in answering people's calls for disaster |
| 0:40.2 | assistance and aid after the flood. |
| 0:43.2 | Those claims are absolutely false. Within just an hour or two after the flooding, we had |
| 0:48.4 | resources from the Department of Homeland Security there helping those individuals in Texas. |
| 0:53.1 | So those claims are false. They're from people |
| 0:55.1 | who won't put their name behind those claims. And those call centers were fully staffed and |
| 0:59.6 | responsive. President Trump, who has called for cuts to FEMA, praised the agency during his |
| 1:06.0 | recent visit to Texas, but he did not comment on his plans for its future. So for a closer look, we are joined now by former FEMA administrator, Deanne Criswell. |
| 1:16.6 | Deanne Criswell, thank you so much for being here again. |
| 1:19.6 | I appreciate that it is complicated commenting on your successors' work. |
| 1:24.6 | But from your analysis, what is your sense |
| 1:28.1 | of how FEMA has responded to this disaster in Texas? |
| 1:35.0 | William, I mean, it is hard to watch from the sidelines |
| 1:38.0 | because you know how you would do things. |
| 1:40.0 | But I think the thing that really stands out |
| 1:42.7 | is I know the women and men of FEMA, and I know how they would respond and the actions that they would take to make sure that they're moving resources in to have things available, to anticipate what that state might need. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from PBS NewsHour, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of PBS NewsHour and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

