The Trump administration pushed back Sunday on criticism of the National Weather Service's initial forecasting and its staffing levels ahead Central Texas' catastrophic flooding. The big picture: The storm that's killed at least 80 people brought federal cuts to NOAA's NWS under scrutiny after it emerged that two Texas NWS offices were missing key staff at the time,

Officials said more than 850 people had been rescued after a sudden storm dumped up to 15 inches of rain across the region.

"A lot of the weather forecast offices now are not operating at full complement of staff," said the former lead of NOAA.

As searchers continue to look for victims in the deadly flash flooding in Texas, officials are answering questions about the weather forecasts ahead of and during the storm.

Some experts say staff shortages might have complicated forecasters’ ability to coordinate responses with local emergency management officials.