Posted on 07/05/2025 5:11:08 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
A slow-moving storm that dumped more than a foot of rain in the Texas Hill Country has killed 27 people, with dozens more missing, and officials are saying they weren’t prepared because the National Weather Service got the forecast wrong.
Wonder if Donald Trump and Elon Musk laying off 600 National Weather Service staffers earlier this year could have had anything to do with that?
…Deadly flash floods are, unfortunately, not uncommon – 10 teens at a summer camp died during a flash-flood event from a storm that dumped 11 inches of rain in Kerrville in 1987, and 13 people died in flooding from a six-inch rainstorm in San Antonio just three weeks ago.
Which is to say, there’s a reason Texas Hill Country is also known as Flash Flood Alley.
…On the meteorologists, the National Weather Service isn’t talking, but you do have to wonder how much the mass layoffs ordered by DOGE, in line with the Project 2025 plan to dismantle the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has eroded the ability of the NWS to keep on top of things.
The bulk of the staffers let go were specialized climate scientists and weather forecasters, and an internal document obtained by The New York Times warned that the agency was on the verge of offering “degraded” forecasting services because it was facing “severe shortages” of meteorologists.
In May, five past directors of the National Weather Service issued a letter warning that Trump’s cuts “leave the nation’s official weather forecasting entity at a significant deficit, just as we head into the busiest time for severe storm predictions like tornadoes and hurricanes.”
“Our worst nightmare is that weather forecast offices will be so understaffed that there will be needless loss of life,” the directors wrote in that letter.
(Excerpt) Read more at augustafreepress.com ...
And if they did, how were they going to broadcast the emergency? Smoke signals? Jungle drums? How about issuing a free satellite phone to everyone in the area? Cell signal in most of those areas is spotty at best. This is Texas. You don't camp out on the banks of a hill country stream or river when there are thunderstorms in the area. If you do, it's up to you to monitor the weather and the river.
All our bureaucracies are filled with woke idiots.
When Almeda took my community, the county emergency “ woman” decided to not warn us..all senior citizens in mobile home parks... because we are old and it “might” confuse us.
We were never evacuated.
We were never warned.
I ran house to house trying to get people to leave instead of saving my belongings.
It’s a miracle all of us didn’t die.
And that stupid hag still has her job!
I check the National Weather Service for weather daily. Not for news. There is no radio or TV around here. Weather Underground and Accuweather are useless. Anyone know a good online weather site?
It’s inexplicable that every 5 miles or so down the river there isnt a flood gauge with a satellite connection. It could easily provide real time warning of impending flash floods. Also, Texas has abandoned the warning sirens in favor of the modern cell phone notification. Cell notifications can be useful here and there, but they are no substitute in the middle of the night for the Old Faithful tornado/air raid siren.
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Still, it is the middle of the night. The camp would have had to have a plan for escape to high ground. Do the kids just walk out into the storm and fend for themselves? How are you going to move 700 kids to safety with only a few minutes notice for something that happens once every 40 years? It also could still have been storming.
The Uvalde shooting comes to mind. So does their covid reaction. So does the great freeze out.
They manage crises poorly. But try out on an awesome press conference!
DeSantis provides a master class in leading by example.
As governor, with every hurricane season and plus: he has excelled at mobilizing his state and all the town & local authorities thereof, being on top of communicating with the media with real time updates, communicating with the weather service, infrastructure managers, Red Cross, and even navigating around federal deadweights like FEMA.
Trump’s buddy buddy with DeSantis again by the way due to collaborating on Alligator Alcatraz:
https://youtu.be/Mv8fCMva3D4
BTW..all those neighbors... mostly leftist loons, only one thanked me for sacrificing everything I owned to warn them! One patriot said THANKS.
If only we paid 500,000 meterologists to work from home, nothing bad would ever happen...
Sirens. Along the river. Apparently were an option at some point. TX decided to rely on texting. 😬
My memory is that he brought in NG controllers.... YMMV
The warning was documented.
Every mortgage lender, every insurer, would have been up the property owner’s backside about it.
They knew full well what COULD happen.
Just because it HADN’T happened in 50 years or more is no excuse.
The river, under normal conditions, is kinda skinny. The flood plain along the river is many many times wider. Hoping they can run a 12 flat 100 meter sprint across mud in the pitch black of a mid-Texas 3am during a downpour isn’t a viable safety plan to impose on your young campers.
https://x.com/InfiniteEmf/status/1941587993380389046
The NWS has almost 5,000 employees just at the federal level. May be time to let go of another couple thousand fed leeches starting with the global warming liars in the NWS.
“DeSantis provides a master class in leading by example.”
How does this compare with the issue at hand
I learned my lesson at a very young age.
Went to a campground on a holiday weekend
Got beer, and everything.
Pitched our tent on that “sweet” spot of our campsite.
Man, this camping is easy!
First night, the skies opened and we got soaked
Yup, that “sweet” spot was the runoff for our campsite, and most surrounding campsites....
We moved our tent on day 2
“ specialized climate scientists ”
Yeah, those types will stop the rain.
Military is my first guess, but there may not have been enough of them.
And any cuts don’t take effect until October.
Excellent point!
Floods and weather kill people.
DOGE , has not.
Abbot is not like DeSantis in being on top of things…Will end with this:
How Texas’ power grid failed in 2021 — and who’s responsible for preventing a repeat
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/15/texas-power-grid-winter-storm-2021/#:~:text=What%20went%20wrong%20during%20the,to%20quickly%20impose%20weatherization%20standards.
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