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 ...
This is from a CNN reporter this morning pretending to ask an innocent question as the families are still searching for their loved ones. They are quick to set their narrative.
Juliette Kayyem
@juliettekayyem
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This is an absolute tragedy. The question we have to ask is whether any ability to notify or warn was impacted by decreases/DOGE on weather services. I don’t know the answer and we can’t assume it; the camp may have been isolated. But I’d want to know if I were a parent.
do not pitch a tent on a flood plain....
Did the overstaffed NWS save lives in the North Carolina floods?
Thank You for your attention to this matter,
You obviously have no idea what the hell you are talking about.
The weather service put out a WARNING 3 FREAKING HOURS BEFORE THE FLOOD!
A flash flood can absolutely be predicted. 5, 10, 20 etc miles up river. It would be child’s play to put flood gauge sensors and detectors every five or 10 miles. You could track a flash flood developing and moving in real time. It’s ludicrous to suggest I can watch every red light in the country with two or three cameras, predict what I’m going to have for dinner next Tuesday, monitor every license plate going down the road. But somehow, it’s an impossible moonshot to B Place satcom connected sensors up a river well known for flash floods.
Shoot, now that I think about it, we have a complete line of sensors from Scotland to Ireland, Scotland to Iceland, Iceland to Greenland just waiting for a submarine to pass by. But the Guadalupe river… That’s a tough one
“The question we have to ask is whether any ability to notify or warn was impacted by decreases/DOGE on weather services. “
Are you dense?? The weather service put out a warning 3 hours before the flood and a watch 12 hours before.
Uh, no.
Yes but people only got their warnings via cell phone — for those not in cell range or not thinking much of it — this may be an ineffective warning system. Apparently, there are supposed to be sirens? But TX does not have those currently implemented.
“Did the DOGE layoffs at the National Weather Service just kill a bunch of people?”
How many National Weather Service computers did DOGE layoff?
A bear was seen taking a dump in the woods did doge do that? Inquiring minds want to know.
The river rose 26 feet in 45 minutes. I don’t know what could have been done that would have made a difference.
Wasn’t it like 10 years or so ago that the Guadalupe River flood was even higher than this time???
If so, was this Camp Mystic flooded in this bigger flood?
If Camp Mystic was flooded in the last big flood, then why were they still allowed to be a summer campsite?
Em. They’re still in recovery efforts. There are still helicopters swirling overhead
Mr Trump, stop firing the psychic weather people who are capable of predicting otherwise unpredictable events.
“where did reagan go to fill those slots on such a short notice”
And the answer is?
You want to wire up all of our country to warning people of weather?? You pay for it!
The weather service already uses TV, FM radio, AM Radio, Shortwave, cell phone, web sites, text messaging, etc.
YOU have a responsibility to check weather before going on adventures. You do. Not them. Not me. No one else.
If you are too stupid to live then maybe stupid kills but not often enough!
NO
“The river rose 26 feet in 45 minutes.”
I’m not aware of any USGS river gauges that handle that range.
As I have previously mentioned, local, national, whatever, weather people receive huuuuge salaries, and use their “professional” vocabulary:
maybe, perhaps, chance of, partly
If I were to use any such phraseology in my work, there is very little “chance of” receiving a paycheck.
“ When government makes significant staffing changes affecting service ”
What would the government do in such a case, in particular?
I’m a few miles from the Guadalupe here and I’m dry. My porch furniture is taking a beating
Do I thank the government for that? What have they done, in particular?
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