Did cloud seeding cause the Texas floods? Glenn Beck speaks with the man with the most fingers pointed at him
Over Fourth of July weekend, Kerrville, Texas, was devastated by catastrophic flooding along the Guadalupe River, which rose 26 feet in just 45 minutes. The floods have claimed more than 100 lives, many of whom were children, but that number is expected to rise, as there are still several missing people.
While Central Texas is known for flooding — sometimes severe flooding — what happened last week is unprecedented in its severity. Many aren’t convinced that this was just a freak act of nature. There are growing theories that the floods were caused by human tampering with weather patterns — specifically cloud seeding, a technique where chemicals are released into clouds to encourage them to produce precipitation.
One person in the crosshairs of this theory is Augustus Doricko, founder and CEO of Rainmaker, a U.S.-based climate technology company specializing in cloud seeding. He’s been directly blamed for the Texas floods after it was discovered that his company seeded clouds in Texas just two days before the torrential rain began.
Yesterday, Glenn Beck invited Doricko on “The Glenn Beck Program” to plead his case.
“So explain what cloud seeding does and how you know you didn't have anything to do with [the floods],” Glenn says.
While weather modification sounds like a modern practice, Doricko says it’s been going on since the 1940s when it was developed “to increase water supply for farms, for ecosystem conservation, for reservoirs, for residences, and also our industries.”
Cloud seeding “relies on identifying liquid in clouds and then releasing particulates, specifically silver iodide, into those clouds that the water freezes onto into big snowflakes and then become heavy enough to fall as rain,” Doricko explains, noting that the practice is “paid for by farmers and utilities and government entities that want more water for their constituents.”
While cloud seeding is a highly effective practice — it “can produce tens of millions of gallons of precipitation distributed over hundreds of square miles over the course of about an hour or two,” Doricko says — it could not produce the amount of precipitation that fell in Central Texas last weekend. “The remnants of tropical storm Barry that blew in and caused the flooding, that storm dumped trillions of gallons,” he differentiates.
One of the reasons Doricko has been specifically blamed for the deadly Texas floods is because Rainmaker seeded clouds in Texas on July 2 — two days before the rain began.
“We seeded two clouds, two small clouds, with about 70 grams’ worth of silver iodide,” he says, noting that while there was rainfall as a result, the clouds “dissipated about two hours after” and “could not have stayed suspended in the atmosphere by the time that the flooding started happening.”
Further, in accordance with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation’s suspension criteria, Rainmaker stopped its cloud-seeding operations even before the National Weather Service issued flood warnings.
“We at Rainmaker earnestly believe that this is God’s kingdom to steward, and it is our job to do no harm and do as much good as we can,” Doricko tells Glenn, noting that he became a Christian at age 20 and was actually “baptized in Dallas.”
While he stressed the need to “be cautious” to “mitigate any potential for any damage,” he also warned against banning the technology outright. Not only would it “prevent farmers from having water,” but it would also put even greater distance between the United States and China, which has an enormous weather modification program.
“The United States a year ago spent $2.4 million on cloud-seeding research,” while “China has an annual budget of $1.4 billion for cloud seeding and weather modification,” says Doricko. “They have 35,000 employees in their weather modification office,” and “they have two universities that offer bachelor's degrees in weather engineering.”
“If the United States bans this technology wholesale ... not only will we be behind China, but we won't have regulatory statutes or the capability to monitor who is modifying the weather in the United States and otherwise,” he warns.
While Doricko agrees that weather modification sounds scary, cloud seeding is distinct from other more extreme weather modification practices. Cloud seeding encourages precipitation using “existing puffy clouds,” but “geoengineering is a global climatic intervention designed to either cool the planet down or create reflective high-altitude clouds,” he tells Glenn.
But Glenn still has questions. He points to speculation that the devastating double hurricanes — Helene and Milton — that impacted Florida and North Carolina last year were a result of cloud seeding.
“I never believed any of that stuff, but can it be done?” he asks.
“No. It, at this point in time, cannot be done,” Doricko replies.
However, he is a proponent of exploring how we might “mitigate severe weather,” like hurricanes, in the future. “I think that it would be abdicating our responsibility to try to tend to the world that God gave us if we didn't at least think about it,” he says.
To hear Glenn’s response, watch the clip above.
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Sometimes the most Christian thing to do is shut up
I didn’t want to write this. I still don’t.
The push notification lit up my phone while I was working out — campers swept away as the Guadalupe River surged dozens of feet in under an hour. I walked out of the gym and teared up in my truck.
Now I’m stuffing sunscreen and swimsuits into two trunks. My older two kids head off to sleepaway camp next week. How do I tell them the adventure they’re so giddy about just turned fatal for other families? What can a keyboard jockey like me offer when other parents are living a nightmare? My first instinct was to close the laptop, whisper a prayer, and stay quiet.
But silence isn’t always the faithful response.
Entire campsites — from Kerr County to the back roads of Texas Hill Country — have been wiped away. Parents who expected mosquito bites and ghost stories are now scanning riverbanks for anything recognizable. They don’t need punditry. They need the rest of us to witness their grief without turning it into the next battleground in the culture war.
That’s the part I dread most.
Within hours of the first siren, the internet erupted in blame. Was it climate change? Outdated flood maps? Local negligence? Federal failure? Pick your camp, rack up your retweets, move the score marker. The bodies weren’t even identified before the hashtags started trending. It’s as if we’ve forgotten how to mourn without also trying to win.
'Where was God?' feels like the only honest question when the water rises. But storms don’t mean vengeance, any more than sunsets are God’s apology.
Then there’s that phrase believers lean on — “thoughts and prayers.” “Ts and Ps,” as Gen Z sneers. If I lost one of my kids, those words would feel like a whispered lullaby in a room suddenly emptied of breath — tender, well-meaning, and painfully inadequate.
Not because prayer is pointless. Because the cliché is.
When calamity struck, Job’s friends “sat with him on the ground seven days … and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.” No carbon emissions debate. No X threads. Just presence. Silence. Solidarity.
Maybe that’s the posture we need now — especially along a river whose name, Guadalupe, traces back to “river of the wolf.” Creation still has teeth. Even waters we picnic beside can turn predator in a single thunderstorm. Wolves hunt in packs. They also protect their own. Maybe that’s the symbolism: The same river that devoured so many calls the rest of us to move as a pack — toward the survivors, not away.
Real faith doesn’t show up as a hashtag. It comes in the form of casseroles and chain saws, spare bedrooms and Venmo links. It hauls soggy photo albums into the sun. It listens more than it lectures. When Jesus met Mary and Martha at the tomb, He wept before He preached. Maybe that’s the order we’ve lost.
So what can we do from a distance?
Give until it pinches — money, blood, bottled water, even unused PTO if your workplace allows donations. Relief crews will need support for months, not days.
Go if you can. Student ministries, church groups, skilled contractors — this work doesn’t end when the cameras leave.
Guard these families’ dignity. Share verified donation links, not drone footage of recovered bodies. If you wouldn’t show the image to your child, don’t post it.
Grieve aloud. Let your kids see adults who don’t numb tragedy with mindless scrolling.
And yes, pray— not as a substitute for action, but as its source. Prayer is oxygen for those on their feet. When the apostle James said, “Faith without works is dead,” he might as well have been looking out the window of a rescue chopper.
I get the temptation to shake a fist at heaven. “Where was God?” feels like the only honest question when the water rises. But storms don’t mean vengeance, any more than sunsets are God’s apology. Scripture calls Him a refuge and redeemer, not a puppet master yanking strings to break hearts. Turning away from God now is like fleeing the only lighthouse in a gale.
If grief makes prayer sound hollow, answer the hollowness with action — and with the stubborn belief that the Creator remains good, even when creation feels cruel.
I still don’t want to write this. I’d rather tuck my kids in tonight and pretend rivers respect property lines and holiday weekends. But if this piece offers anything, let it give permission to mourn without politicizing. For one day — one hour even — let grief be grief. Let dads hold their kids tighter. Let moms remind us that safety doesn’t come with a zip code. Let the church prove it’s more than a Sunday address.
With the sparklers of Independence Day barely cooled, maybe the most patriotic thing we can do is recover the lost art of compassionate presence. No monologue — including this one — can fill a bunk bed left empty. But through gifts, sweat, silence, and prayer, maybe we can shoulder a sliver of the weight.
If you’re reading this in a dry living room, remember the families whose furniture is floating somewhere downriver.
Before you post, pause.
Before you debate, donate.
If “thoughts and prayers” still feel hollow, add two more words: “Here’s how.”
Then go do it.
Jasmine Crockett somehow makes the Texas flood tragedy all about herself
Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas could not resist another opportunity to shine the spotlight on herself.
In the midst of the Texas floods that have claimed the lives of at least 120 loved ones, the Democratic rising star posted a video pointing the finger at President Donald Trump and talking about how the tragedy will most affect her. Notably, Crockett's district is roughly 300 miles away from where the floods raged through Kerr County, which is about the same distance between Boston and Philadelphia.
Despite her long history of tone deaf remarks, Crockett has emerged as one of the most popular Democrats in her party.
Crockett starts the video by saying her "heart is truly heavy for all these families," before immediately making it about herself and how Trump is working around the clock to "hurt us."
"The sad part is I think that my heart is going to carry a level of weight that will continue to weigh me down as we have to continue to do our best to survive an administration that literally is against us," Crockett said in a post on Instagram. "An administration that is doing everything, in my mind, to hurt us and not help us, and it feels like we're fending for ourselves."
RELATED: Here are the top 3 LEAST patriotic members of Congress
Rep. Jasmine Crockett somehow manages to make the Texas flooding disaster about her: “The sad part is, I think that my heart is going to carry a level of weight that will continue to weigh me down as we have to continue to do our best to survive.” pic.twitter.com/J3TAQhmJ5T
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) July 9, 2025
In the same post about the Texas flooding, Crockett made sure to give a shoutout to her hairstylist.
"My staff said y’all are commenting about my BOB!" Crockett wrote in the post. She thanked her stylist for "orchestrating the look" followed by a kissy face emoji.
RELATED: Jasmine Crockett says Trump impeachment inquiry 'absolutely' on the table
Despite her long history of tone deaf remarks, Crockett has emerged as one of the most popular Democrats in her party.
In a hypothetical Senate primary, Crockett is leading with 35% support among Democratic voters, followed by former Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas), who polled at 20% support, according to a poll conducted by the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Failed presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke and Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) were also tied for 13% in the poll.
Although Crockett has secured a healthy lead in the primary, she has not formally announced or publicly signaled her interest in running to unseat Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas.
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This SCOTUS Session Confirmed The Vibe Shift On Transing Kids
The gender craze is losing in the Supreme Court and in the court of public opinion.'Dereliction of duty': DEI-obsessed fire chief on hot seat following deadly Texas flooding
The fire chief of the capital city of Austin is fending off calls to resign after his response to the deadly flooding that struck Central Texas last week.
The Austin Firefighters Association did not mince words when sharing its views regarding the flood response from Fire Chief Joel Baker. In a Facebook message posted Monday, the AFA claimed that except for three rescue swimmers, Baker deliberately "DENIED the deployment of Austin firefighters to Kerrville until very late into the event."
'Although we had an increase of Africans that had applied, I have not really seen an increase of Africans [who have] been hired.'
The "disgusted" AFA described Baker's alleged decisions during the flooding as "unforgivable" and an "egregious" and "disgraceful dereliction of duty."
"LIVES WERE VERY LIKELY LOST BECAUSE OF CHIEF BAKER’S DECISION!" the group continued. "... He needs to be held accountable and fired."
The AFA claimed Baker withheld the resources in a "misguided attempt to save money" and that finances may have played a role.
A June 6 email from Andre Jordan, division chief of special operations and homeland security for the city of Austin, and distributed to various fire staff stated that the Austin Fire Department had "suspended deployments" to the fire academy and through the Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System until October 1, citing a city "budget crisis" of some $800,000 due mainly to missing reimbursements from the state, according to the Austin Monitor.
'It’s important that we are able to function and maintain a certain level of readiness in the city of Austin.'
"The City wants to make sure this money is reimbursed before the end of the fiscal year, and does not want to be in a situation where additional money is expended on deployments and is not recouped before the end of the fiscal year," Jordan reportedly wrote.
Baker admitted to KXAN on Monday that "the email should have said ... 'Based on a case-by-case basis.'" However, he insisted that his department "absolutely" did everything it could in response to the flooding and that budget issues at AFD had "nothing" to do with his decisions during it.
Baker added that his primary responsibility, even during a widespread emergency, is to protect the city of Austin and its residents:
It’s important that we are able to function and maintain a certain level of readiness in the city of Austin. Now, to keep in mind — again — I was not sure how much of the weather would impact my city — the city of Austin. I need to make sure that I have an adequate amount of resources within the city so I can respond for my mutual aid calls and my automatic aid calls around the city of Austin.
A spokesperson from the press information office also told Blaze News that AFD began deploying rescue personnel to areas in need on July 4 and continued to do so in the days following. The three rescue swimmers were dispatched on Friday, eight other team members and a boat on Saturday and Sunday, six crew members and fire engine on Monday, and four engines and a battalion chief on Tuesday, according to an email from the PIO.
"The first request for aid that was communicated to AFD leadership came in on July 4, the same day we deployed," the message from the spokesperson said. "AFD evaluates deployment requests on a case-by-case basis to ensure we can meet the needs of the requesting agency/agencies without compromising staffing and resources in our City."
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson and city manager T.C. Broadnax likewise stand by Baker against the accusations from the firefighters' union.
But AFA President Bob Nicks is not satisfied. "We were the best rescue team in the best position to help those little girls," Nicks said, referring to the tragedy at Camp Mystic in Kerr County, according to KXAN. "Before the moratorium, this was a routine request, and we would have deployed."
For now, members of the AFA are reportedly considering a possible vote of no confidence in Chief Baker, but Baker appears not to mind. "I absolutely will not step aside," he said, according to the Austin American-Statesman.
Baker has been at the helm of AFD, with its nearly 50 stations and 1,200 employees, since his appointment in December 2018. Prior to moving to Austin, Baker spent three decades with the Atlanta Fire Rescue Department in Georgia, where he grew up. Since taking the position with AFD, Baker, touted as Austin's "first African-American fire chief," has prioritized diversity and increasing the number of "minority applicants."
There's still "a whole lot of room for improvement," he said in an interview with KTBC in 2020.
"We had an increase of ... minority applicants who had applied. ... I have not really seen an increase of [applicants who have] been hired. So now we got to find out — we getting people applying, but what's the barrier of getting them hired? You know, are they not able to pass the written exam or the oral exam or the background checks? You know, what's out there? What's barriers are out there that prevent them to get hired?"
Since his arrival in Austin, Baker has also joined the 100 Black Men of Austin and Gamma Eta Lambda Chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, which claims to have "supplied voice and vision to the struggle of African-Americans and people of color around the world" since its founding in 1906.
Blaze News asked the AFD press office about Baker's emphasis on race and DEI but did not receive a response to those questions. The AFA and Andre Jordan did not respond to requests for comment.
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Trump's DOJ nabs Chinese agent accused of global CCP plot to steal COVID research
Amid the Trump administration's efforts to curb the Chinese Communist Party's influence in the U.S., the Department of Justice announced the arrest of a CCP agent accused of worldwide computer intrusions related to COVID-19 research.
Xu Zewei, 33, and Zhang Yu, 44, are facing a nine-count indictment for allegedly "hacking and stealing crucial COVID-19 research at the behest of the Chinese government while that same government was simultaneously withholding information about the virus and its origins," stated Nicholas Ganjei, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas.
'Through HAFNIUM, the CCP targeted over 60,000 U.S. entities, successfully victimizing more than 12,700 in order to steal sensitive information.'
Federal authorities alleged that the Ministry of State Security's Shanghai State Security Bureau directed Xu to perform computer intrusions between February 2020 and June 2021.
Xu allegedly targeted American universities, immunologists, and virologists to obtain information on COVID-19 research related to vaccines, treatment, and testing.
In February 2020, Xu informed the SSSB that he had breached the "network of a research university located in the Southern District of Texas," the DOJ reported. An SSSB officer then reportedly instructed him to target email accounts belonging to certain virologists and immunologists.
Brett Leatherman, the assistant director of the FBI's Cyber Division, explained that Xu and his co-conspirators later operated as a group known as HAFNIUM, which "exploited zero-day vulnerabilities in U.S. systems to steal additional research."
"Through HAFNIUM, the CCP targeted over 60,000 U.S. entities, successfully victimizing more than 12,700 in order to steal sensitive information," Leatherman said.
RELATED: Chinese official avows Beijing is behind cyberattacks on US, identifies motive: Report
In late 2020, HAFNIUM allegedly breached the Microsoft Exchange Server, impacting computers worldwide, including a law firm and another university in the Southern District of Texas.
Microsoft announced the breach in March 2021, describing HAFNIUM as a "state-sponsored" group "operating out of China." It noted that the hackers had targeted "infectious disease researchers, law firms, higher education institutions, defense contractors, policy think tanks, and NGOs."
RELATED: Agriculture secretary unveils plan to stop China’s farmland grab, bio-material smuggling threats
Xu was arrested in Milan, Italy, on July 3 at the request of the U.S. government and now awaits extradition proceedings. He was charged with wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to cause damage to and obtain information by unauthorized access to protected computers to commit wire fraud and to commit identity theft, obtaining information by unauthorized access to protected computers, intentional damage to a protected computer, and aggravated identity theft.
Ganjei stated, "The Southern District of Texas has been waiting years to bring Xu to justice and that day is nearly at hand. As this case shows, even if it takes years, we will track hackers down and make them answer for their crimes. The United States does not forget."
The DOJ reported that Zhang remains at large.
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Want to help Texas flood victims? Here’s what you can do
Over the July Fourth weekend, torrential rains unleashed catastrophic flooding along the Guadalupe River in Central Texas. The death toll has climbed past 100 statewide, with 87 confirmed deaths in Kerr County, and is expected to rise as rescue teams search for the missing. Among the victims are 27 campers and counselors from Camp Mystic, a nearly century-old Christian summer camp for girls near Hunt, Texas.
This tragedy hit home for Sara Gonzales, a Texas native.
“My heart has been heavy all weekend thinking about people in my own state, here in the state of Texas, who have died in this tragic flood,” she says.
In times like these, people are eager to support the victims, their families, and the rescue teams, but they often struggle to find reliable ways to help.
To get guidance on how we can best help, Sara invited Texas Rep. Chip Roy (R) to “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”
“Can you tell the audience what they can do if they want to help?” Sara asks.
“First of all, pray,” is Roy’s initial response.
“Second of all, go online and donate. Dollars will always be able to help and be able to be used where they're best needed,” he adds, adding that his social media pages as well as his website have information about how you can help.
— (@)
Roy reminds us that help will be needed not just now, but for many months to come.
“We’re going to need help in a week. We're going to need help in two weeks, and everybody forgets and they go back to life, but that's when we're going to really need the help,” he says. “Right now, we're trying to … find bodies, clear out the disaster area, open up roads, and then we're going to need a lot of help over the next six months to a year.”
“We’ll rebuild,” he promised. “We’re Texas. … We're filled with a lot of God-fearing, awesome people, and we'll rebuild.”
To hear more, watch the episode above.
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Death of 9-year-old girl in Texas floods breaks hearts of Kansas City Chiefs ownership: 'I assure you God is near'
The Hunt family, the owners of the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs, confirmed that they have lost a young family member to the recent Kerr County, Texas, floods.
At least 104 people died as a result of the floods, recent reporting from ABC News showed, including 30 children in Kerr County.
One of the hardest areas hit also included a Christian girls' camp called Camp Mystic, where, as of Tuesday afternoon, five campers and one counselor were still deemed missing. The camp was wrecked by flooded waters from the Guadalupe River that also ravaged the nearby communities before dawn on Friday morning.
Lost in the fray of the disaster have been the personal stories, and the Hunt family's recent revelation is just as sad as any other.
'If your heart is broken, I assure you God is near. He is gentle with your wounds.'
Tavia Hunt, wife of Chiefs owner, Clark Hunt, confirmed the death of their 9-year-old cousin Janie Hunt in a social media post on Sunday.
According to Fox 4, Tavia Hunt explained that their cousin and several of her friends had their lives taken by the storm.
"Our hearts are broken by the devastation from the floods in Wimberley and the tragic loss of many lives — including a precious little Hunt cousin, along with several friend's little girls."
Tavia Hunt's message was even more heartbreaking as she talked about her faith.
RELATED: Brian Stelter suggests media partly to blame for 'warning fatigue' amid tragic flood deaths
"If your heart is broken, I assure you God is near. He is gentle with your wounds," Hunt wrote on Instagram. "And He is still worthy — even when your soul is struggling to believe it."
With her message, Hunt expressed the sentiment that even though bad things happen, trusting in God does not mean one has to be "over the pain" but rather handling it in a way that is near and dear to their heart.
She concluded, "For we do not grieve as those without hope."
RELATED: Texas Rep. Chip Roy DEBUNKS Camp Mystic Texas flood myths
The Hunt family also opened their wallets to flood victims seemingly just hours prior to losing one of their family members. According to Us Weekly, Tavia Hunt had announced a donation of hundreds of thousands of dollars to emergency services for flood relief just an hour before the post about her deceased cousin.
Noting the "devastation and loss of life" caused by the floods, Tavia said the family was donating "$500,000 to provide immediate resources for rescue, relief, and long-term recovery efforts."
Clark Hunt has been the chairman of the Chiefs since 2005 and the co-owner since 2006. The team has won three Super Bowls during his reign.
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