Just weeks ago, President Donald Trump said he wanted to begin “phasing out” the Federal Emergency Management Agency after this hurricane season to “wean off of FEMA” and “bring it down to the state level.

In the five months since Trump chose Neil Jacobs as NOAA administrator, hundreds of NOAA scientists and meteorologists have left the agency through a combination of firings, buyouts and retirements.

In the deadliest natural disaster since the Trump administration's layoffs and buyouts at federal forecasting offices, Texas officials are praising the president and deflecting questions about the possible effect of the cuts.