Following catastrophic flooding in Texas, hopes of finding survivors have dimmed as the death toll passed 100 today.
27 of those who died were children at summer camp, including two twin sisters who had just finished the second grade.
While some families have yet to recover the bodies of their missing loved ones, many of whom just days ago were having the time of their lives at Camp Mystic, the tragedy is already being manipulated by those in power.
During a recent press conference, White House Secretary Karoline Leavitt accused Democrats of turning the floods into a ‘political game’ – likely alluding to calls from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to investigate if ‘preventable failures’ contributed to the floods.
She added: ‘This is a national tragedy, and the administration is treating it as such. Blaming President Trump for these floods is a depraved lie, and it serves no purpose during this time of national mourning.’
This isn’t the first time a climate disaster has been exploited by politicians to serve their own interests, with little regard for those who have suffered and lost loved ones – and it probably won’t be the last.
Comparisons to the scale of disaster and response from political leaders have already been made to the devastation in western North Carolina last September, after Hurricane Helene swept through, killing 251 people and destroying thousands of homes.
As walls of water moved quickly through small mountain towns, entire houses and businesses were wiped away in an instant, while hundreds of residents had little chance of escape. Almost a year later, the communities still haven’t recovered.
Immediately after the disaster, Trump, who was in the midst of his re-election campaign, began spreading well-documented public lies and conspiracy theories, blaming President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for the flood and lack of help.
Blame game
During one visit to the small North Carolinian town of Swannanoa in January, which suffered unprecedented damage, he told victims that the Biden government ‘failed’ them with funding.
While Trump’s recent, sombre remarks following the floods in Texas are a far cry from his politically-motivated posts during Hurricane Helene, he still couldn’t resist placing blame on another politician, like many leaders before him.
‘Melania and I are praying for all the families impacted by this horrible tragedy. God bless the families and God bless Texas,’ he posted, later adding: ‘If you look at that water situation, that was really the Biden setup.’
Biden’s response to Hurricane Helene was also slammed for the ‘delayed’ response in giving aide to the hardest-hit regions from the storm. He was harshly criticised for his delay in visiting the devastated areas as well.
Trump has previously blamed Democrats for climate disasters. In early January, he blamed California’s governor for the unprecedented wildfires which burned much of Los Angeles – accusing him of prioritising ‘fish’ over more water in the state.
While comments like these could appear as good-old-fashioned political mud-slinging, the real-world consequences have been felt for decades, often by some of America’s poorest regions.
Just months after claiming that Biden had let the people of North Carolina down financially, the Trump Administration denied a request for millions of dollars worth of Hurricane Helene relief.
Facing the truth
The question is, with extreme weather disasters growing more volatile as the burning of fossil fuels continues across America – and the globe – why do so many politicians prefer to point the finger rather than address the elephant in the room and actually do something?
‘It’s not a simple story, but it’s a very American story. This is where we are,’ Lawrence Hamilton, a Professor of Sociology at the University of New Hampshire, tells Metro.
After all, climate change-related extreme weather events have been found to disproportionately affect lower-income areas, further exacerbating already tough living conditions when disaster hits.
When it comes to floods, historically, residents who live on higher ground are often better off than those in lower areas, which see the most damage.
During Hurricane Katrina in 2005, areas at higher elevations in Louisiana, such as the wealthier French Quarter, only more minor flooding and damage.
Meanwhile, the lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans was severely damaged when the levees broke, sending historic levels of water spilling into homes and killing more than a thousand people.
After Katrina moved through, the debris left behind revealed just how real the intersection between poverty and geography is when it comes to weather disasters.
Perception vs reality
Despite tragic floods, wildfires and climate disasters seen in Texas, North Carolina, California and across the country, many Americans simply ‘aren’t perceiving’ the patterns at play which worsen weather.
‘For instance, out West, where wildfires are common, people know it’s bad. They often perceive that they’re getting worse, but they do not accept any of the science about why they might be getting worse, or they only accept the parts of it that fit with their sociopolitical views,’ explains Professor Hamilton.
‘There’s a theory in social science called elite cues – it’s the idea that you know what to believe because your leaders have told you that it goes with your identity.
‘Some places are much harder hit, and the impact is harder to overlook, but in other areas, oftentimes, even just the perception of whether it happened or not is being disputed.’
After Helene destroyed western North Carolina, rumours of ‘space lasers’ controlling the weather ran rampant online.
In the aftermath of the Texas floods, some people began blaming the victims. In one viral TikTok, a woman suggested the campers (who were children) at Camp Mystic ‘deserved’ to die because the state voted for Trump.
These warped perceptions of reality come from deep-rooted convictions, Professor Hamilton adds, that often change the person’s view of what actually happened.
‘People’s belief systems can overwrite their perceptions of physical reality, so they remember things differently or interpret them in radically different ways,’ he explains.
‘The climate is changing, and there are layers of scientists who are studying and anticipating it. The National Weather Service was watching the storm develop and issuing warnings.’
Yet, Professor Hamilton points out, at the same time, the National Weather Service lost 600 of its staff in the past few months due to budget cuts from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
It’s unclear if cutbacks directly contributed to potential missteps in warning of the Texas floods, but Professor Hamilton adds: ‘There’s a whole layer cake of different things, different failures, really, in this cascade.’
The issue is, when there’s blame to aim at the expense of the competition, will American politicians ever take the literal higher ground and look at why this is happening and how to stop it, rather than who is at fault?
Until then, the reality is that for every social media post filled with thoughts and prayers and a little dig on the side, the most vulnerable lives will continue to be lost, and our world will carry on burning.
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