The MSNBC anchor points to staff cuts DOGE made to the National Weather Service and government offices across the nation.

Rachel Maddow outlined how the slew of cuts President Donald Trump and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) made across government agencies may have worsened the outcome of the devastating Texas floods as well as the state’s preparedness to handle the disaster.

“There are real consequences to this president’s efforts to dismantle the U.S. government. It’s not just about ideology, it is about lives,” Maddow said on Monday night’s episode of “The Rachel Maddow Show,” referring to the 109 people and counting who have died in the floods, which started up over the July 4 weekend.

So far, more than 850 people have been rescued, but there are still at least 161 missing Texans, per media reports.

“Part of recovering from this historic and horrifying disaster is, of course, understanding whether we were ready for it, whether we could have done more,” Maddow said as she began to list the series of events that led up to and may have impacted the state’s preparedness for the natural disaster, highlighting previously reported staff vacancies at Texas offices and staff cuts at the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

She went on to say that folks in the affected areas could have benefitted from hearing weather leaders share their forecasts of the floods.

“Given how quickly that flooding situation escalated with the water rising, 20 or 30 feet in the matter of an hour, in some cases, it may be of some comfort to hear former officials from the National Weather Service saying the forecasts ahead of the storm may have been as good as could be expected,” Maddow said.

Citing a report from the New York Times, Maddow backed the news coverage by restating that the lack of meteorologists who have “decades of experience,” could have made the difference.

“Beyond the vacancies at the regional offices, beyond the number of vacant positions, Texas also faced the ‘loss of experienced people who would typically have helped communicate with local authorities in the hours after the flash flood warnings were issued overnight,’” Maddow said.

“For example, the warning coordination meteorologists with decades of experience who left that exact job in that exact place in the middle of the onslaught against government agencies led by Donald Trump and DOGE.”

Several parts of Texas were impacted by the floods, including Kerr County, which took place when the Guadalupe River rose quickly Friday morning.

Among those who have died were 27 campers and counselors at Camp Mystic.

Now the U.S. Coast Guard and Border Patrol’s BORSTAR are actively on search for survivors.