A study puts the spotlight on Texas as the leading U.S. state by far for flood-related deaths, with more than 1,000 of them from 1959 to 2019

The July 4 Texas Hill Country flash flooding event is the latest to hit the region known as “Flash Flood Alley,” as Texas continues to lead the U.S. in flood-related deaths. The greatest number of flood deaths in the U.

Average annual number of flood-related deaths in the U.S. between 2000 and 2024, though this figure has increased in recent years. According to a Washington Post analysis , most fatal floods are associated with tropical storms, “which studies show have become stronger and wetter amid rising global temperatures.”

Editorial: The Texas deaths aren’t a smoking gun today but rather a cautionary tale about the future. Congress must confront the anti-science sabotage in which this president is engaged.

According to local authorities, at least 109 people died on July 4 and 5, most of which were swept up in floodwaters from campgrounds along the Guadalupe River. That’s just shy of the 118 deaths reported as a result of Hurricane Rita in 2005.

Steep hills, shallow soils and a fault zone have made Hill Country, also called "flash flood alley," one of the state's most dangerous regions.

Florida lacks the hilly topography that supercharged torrential rain into deadly inundations in Central Texas over the July Fourth weekend, but a host of factors make the Sunshine State the most flood-prone of any other.

Still, Schumer and Co. appear to have jumped the gun on this one. While staffing shortages at the NWS and related entities are part of Trump’s downsizing, all indications are that, given the unpredictability and severity of the flood, the federal systems worked as well as they reasonably could have.

President Donald Trump defended the state and federal response to deadly flash flooding in Texas on Friday as he visited the stricken Hill Country region, where at least 120 people, including dozens of children,