Senator Ted Cruz was on vacation as the devastating Texas floods unfolded over the weekend and was forced to cut his trip short.
Cruz was seen vacationing in Athens, Greece, over the weekend after casting his vote on Trump’s budget bill last week as deadly floods struck the Texas Hill Country over the weekend, taking countless lives including dozens of girls at summer camp.
Officials confirmed late Monday afternoon that the death toll from the flooding hit over 100.
Cruz – who infamously had to defend a trip to Cancun during a crisis in 2021 – released the timeline of his weekend to explain that this had been the plan all along.
‘The Senator was already in the middle of preplanned family vacation travel overseas when the flooding occurred on July 4,’ Cruz’s office said in a statement.
They added that Cruz immediately got in touch with state officials, as well as President Donald Trump, and within hours ‘promptly booked a flight back home.’
‘Given the time difference, he left Athens on Sunday morning and was back in Texas that night. And he was in Kerrville on the ground early Monday morning,’ his office added.
Cruz also answered a bizarre question regarding ‘weather modification’ potentially causing the tragedy in a press conference Monday.
Senator Ted Cruz speaks at a briefing in Kerr County, Texas following devastating deadly floods
‘To the best of my knowledge, there is zero evidence of anything related to anything like weather modification. Look, the internet can be a strange place. People can come up with all sorts of crazy theories,’ he said.
Cruz was spotted touring the Parthenon on Saturday evening – a full 24 hours after floodwaters swept through Camp Mystic in Texas leaving more than 20 young girls and their counselors tragically missing.
Photos of the vacationing senator and his wife Heidi were first published by the Daily Beast.
‘A bull*** piece published by a bull*** rag outlet with no credibility, and with no regard for the tragedy in Texas,’ Cruz’s spokeswoman Macarena Martinez wrote on X, sharing the Daily Beast’s story about Cruz.
‘The Senator is on the ground in Texas and arrived as fast as humanly possible. I explained all of this to their two-faced reporter,’ Martinez also added in her reply.
After learning of the tragedy striking his home state and making his way back to America, Cruz participated in a briefing with other Texas officials Monday.
It is unclear when Cruz arrived back in Texas after departing Greece.
Cruz was also caught vacationing in Cancun, Mexico, in February 2021 when a frigid winter storm struck the Lone Star State.
People react as they inspect an area outside sleeping quarters at Camp Mystic along the banks of the Guadalupe River after a flash flood swept through the area Sunday, July 6, 2025, in Hunt, Texas
A view inside of a cabin at Camp Mystic, the site of where at least 20 girls went missing after flash flooding in Hunt, Texas, on July 5, 2025
He enraged citizens of his state by fleeing in the midst of the worst snow storms to hit in decades, with the power failing for millions and people left freezing in the subzero temperatures.
Cruz claimed at the time that his then 10 and 12-year-old daughters asked him if they could go on vacation to Mexico with their friends, so he and his wife boarded a plane hours later.
‘It was obviously a mistake and in hindsight I wouldn’t have done it,’ he said, speaking to members of the media upon on arrival at home in Houston from Cancun.
In a Monday interview with Fox News, Cruz said that ‘something went wrong’ when Camp Mystic staff weren’t warned of rising floodwaters on the Guadalupe River.
The floods killed at least 27 campers and counselors at the all-girls Christian summer camp in Kerr County.
‘The fact that you have girls asleep in their cabins when the flood waters are rising — something went wrong there. We’ve got to fix that and have a better system of warning to get kids out of harm’s way,’ Cruz told Fox.
Senator Ted Cruz with his wife and one of his daughters
Heidi Cruz wife of Texas Senator Ted Cruz arrived back in Houston from Cancun, Mexico with her children in tow. Senator Cruz caused himself a huge backlash from people for leaving the Lone Star State for sunnier climes during an unprecedented winter event in February of 2021 which shut down most of the state for 5 days
After this weekend’s deadly floods, some Democrats quickly blamed President Donald Trump for crippling a critical agency tasked with alerting Americans to impending natural disasters because of his recent government slashing efforts.
DOGE, the Trump administration’s cost-cutting effort previously headed by Elon Musk, had been pushing the federal National Weather Service (NWS) to cut jobs.
The agency was part of the government-wide Trump administration effort to allow employees the option to retire early with a ‘buyout’ rather than face potential dismissal.
However, it’s unclear how many NWS employees took the buyout and it doesn’t appear that it would have impacted the alert system in particular.
Democrat Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro noted during an appearance on CNN Sunday that he was unsure if NWS employees taking the buyout had a direct impact on the flood preparation and response.
‘No, I can’t say that conclusively,’ Rep. Castro first responded when asked by anchor Dana Bash if local NWS personnel taking buyouts from the Trump administration played a role in the devastation of the floods in Texas.
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) speaks outside the U.S. Capitol during a press conference held by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus on April 30, 2025 in Washington, DC
However, then Castro added that he didn’t ‘think it’s helpful to have missing key personnel from the National Weather Service not in place to help prevent these tragedies.’
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was tasked by Trump to assess the damage in Texas over the weekend, fired back at criticisms from Democrats.
‘When I got there on Saturday [the] number one question we got asked was, ‘We were notified, but we only had a couple hours of notice before this flash flood came. Was the National Weather Service proactive? What was the process that was followed?” Noem said on Fox and Friends.
She fiercely defended the agency saying it sent notifications and ‘gave as much time as they could with the tools that they have.’
‘We actually had staff on the ground – that was more than would have been in the past because of the holiday vacation,’ Noem added.
She went on to say that the NWS under Trump is getting a major overhaul after being ‘neglected’ for years.
The agency is operating on an ‘ancient system that needed to be upgraded’ and the ‘new technology’ will be installed soon, she promised.
‘That installation is not complete and that technology is not fully installed. But, the alerts went out,’ Noem concluded.
Democrat Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday asked a government watchdog to investigate whether any cuts at the NWS affected the forecasting agency’s response to catastrophic flooding in Central Texas.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, center, speaks with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, right, about ongoing search and rescue efforts after recent flooding along the Guadalupe River during a press conference on Saturday, July 5, 2025, in Ingram, Texas
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speaks to reporters at the Capitol Building on June 30, 2025 in Washington, DC
Schumer is looking into whether staffing vacancies at the NWS’s San Antonio office in particular contributed to ‘delays, gaps, or diminished accuracy’ in forecasting the flooding.
He is specifically scrutinizing the local office’s communications with Kerr County officials.
The NWS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Schumer’s letter.
The agency has defended its forecasting and emergency management as the floods ravaged the area.
Texas officials have also criticized the NWS after the catastrophic flood, arguing it failed to warn the public about impending danger.
A top three leadership role at the NWS’s San Antonio office has been vacant since earlier this year after Paul Yura, the U.S. forecasting agency’s warning coordination meteorologist, opens new tab for San Antonio, accepted an offer from the Trump administration to retire.
Yura’s role was to build relationships with local emergency managers and officials, with the goal of building trust in the community before disaster strikes.
The NWS’s San Antonio office is responsible for forecasting the area’s weather, collecting climate data and warning the public about dangerous conditions.
The office issued multiple alerts Thursday afternoon and Friday morning about flash flood risks, according to local meteorologists.
‘Even though those messages were issued, it does not mean it got to the people who needed them,’ said Erik Nielsen, who studies extreme rain at Texas A&M University.
The death toll from the catastrophic floods reached at least 78 on Sunday, including at least 28 children.
