Dan Mitchinson: US correspondent on the current death toll from the Texas flash floods

The death toll from flash floods in Texas has risen to 111 - including 28 children - and the numbers missing have skyrocketed to 173.

It's the US's deadliest freshwater flooding in nearly 50 years.

US correspondent Dan Mitchinson says fingers have been pointed at the Republicans in charge - claiming their cuts to emergency services have worsened the impact of the disaster. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Dan Minchison is a US correspondent. Dan, Welcome to the program.
What's the lighted in Texas?

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Well? As you mentioned just a moment ago in the
world wires, we've got one hundred and sixty people that
are known to be missing right now. At least one
hundred and ten have died. The governor, who you just
heard there a moment ago to and spoke at a
news conference, said that the emergency alert system they're going
to be addressing this during a special session of the
state legislature. It looks like sometime in the next couple
of weeks. And this has been sort of a back

(00:27):
and forth finger pointing between Republicans and Democrats that cuts
made by the Trump administration to weather forecasting and emergency
services would end up with with something like this, that
there wasn't enough warning or enough preparation.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Yeah, and Caroline Levid I saw coming out from the
White House quite strong saying if you suggest anything other
than you know, this was all fine and dandy, then
at you're a conspiracy theorist.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yeah, I mean Ted Cruz had spoken out saying, you know,
this is not the time for something like this, and
yet you know that both Republicans and Democrats have been
getting digs in about this. We'll have to see, you know,
what they find. There's always an inquiry after something like this. Uh,
there's also a small chance that we're going to get
more storms, more rain in the area, and we're we're

(01:15):
hoping for some kind of break right now, but it
wouldn't be surprising to find, as the governor said, more
and more bodies in the in the coming days.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Trump and Nitya, who meant for sick and day, what
have they discussed they did?

Speaker 2 (01:27):
I mean, this was the second time that they've they've
met for the ongoing war in Gaza, and they're saying that,
you know, they're they're making a little bit of progress.
Prime Minister Netanya, who said he doesn't believe that Israel's
military campaign in Gaza was done. He says they still
have to finish the job there. A Palestinian source telling

(01:49):
that the BBC they haven't made any headway in these conversations,
even though President Trump has said, you know, we're making
a little progress on this. But you know, he'll even
be the first to agree, I think in a roundabout
way that that things could take a little bit longer.
Than he had originally hoped for, and.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
The July nine tariff died line might be did in
the water obviously got Trump announcing some new tariffs copper
and foreign drugs.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Well, he is too, and this has been going back
and forth. I mean, he also appeared to kind of
backped a little bit on announcing that the deal that
the Treasury Secretary had said earlier would materialize in the
next forty eight hours. And our stock market has been
going up and down, mostly down on the news that
these these tariffs are all over the place in terms
of how high they are depending on the country and
the items that you're buying. And the Yale Budget lab

(02:35):
just came out and they said the letters that the
President sent yesterday are going to be the highest teriff
rates that the US consumers have had since the nineteen thirties.
And he's really fixated on this trade gap, Ryan, and
this is the difference in how much we import versus
how much we export with other countries like you, and
a lot of our economists say that this is just

(02:57):
too simplistic right here, and this is going to do
more more harm possibly than it will good to our
economy in the coming months. And even the years.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Dan appreciate your time This afternoon, Dan Mitchison, our US correspondent.
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