The National Weather Service began sending flash flood warnings that should have triggered cellphone alerts a little after 1 a.m., while local officials began posting on Facebook about four hours later.

Texas forecasters issued a series of early-morning warnings about “life-threatening flooding” along the Guadalupe River.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said blaming the Trump administration’s cuts for exacerbating the disaster was a “despicable lie.”