Texas officials and the founder of a weather-modification startup are pushing back against online claims that cloud seeding triggered the flash floods that swept through the Hill Country over the US Independence Day weekend, killing more than 100 people. Rainmaker chief executive Augustus Doricko acknowledged that his company carried out a single 20-minute flight on 2 July, releasing silver iodide into two clouds roughly 150 miles south of the flood-hit area. Doricko said any rainfall enhancement from the mission would have dissipated within hours and insisted the operation “had no role in the disaster.” Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller echoed that assessment, issuing a statement on 9 July that his department has “absolutely no connection to cloud seeding or any form of weather modification” and urging the public to “put an end to the conspiracy theories.” Independent meteorologists note that cloud seeding cannot create storms and that typical cloud lifespans are measured in minutes to a few hours. The National Weather Service attributes the floods to more than a foot of rain that fell in less than 12 hours as moisture from the remnants of Tropical Storm Barry stalled over the region’s steep, rocky terrain, funneling water rapidly into the Guadalupe River and surrounding creeks. State hydrologists say similar flash-flood events have occurred repeatedly in the area, nicknamed “Flash Flood Alley,” when tropical moisture collides with local topography. While some politicians have seized on the disaster to propose federal bans on weather modification, state regulators note that any seeding in Texas is licensed by the Department of Licensing and Regulation, not the agriculture department, and covers about one-sixth of the state—principally for drought relief. Officials said their immediate focus remains rescue and recovery operations for affected communities.