Cruz, at the local news conference in Texas, pushed back on NWS claims but said there would be a "period of retrospection" after the immediate recovery efforts to analyze what happened and what went wrong.

The White House defended its national forecast agency on Monday ahead of an expected visit from President Donald Trump to Central Texas and as questions have emerged about the response to weather warnings ahead of the deadly flooding that killed at least 90 people in the region.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt forcefully rebutted media reports blaming the National Weather Service (NWS) for the catastrophic Texas flooding, which left at least 82 dead. In a fiery press briefing,