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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 ...
If true, there should not have been a problem.
“You knew this was coming...”
________________________
“There ain’t nothin’ more powerful than the odor of mendacity. You can smell it.”
― Tennessee Williams,
...Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
(You could smell this one coming a mile away.)
The traditional use of military weather radar has abruptly ended (Hegseth), which makes me think our enemies were using our weather radar for bad purposes. DOGE came along and cut the programs too, but the military cut access to military satellite weather radar first.
But as others have said, rivers can have alerts for rising water - Texas needs to step up their game.
If true, there should not have been a problem.
However, as it was pointed out, whenever there is a natural disaster you can count on Texas to fail.
Let’s talk about Chinese balloon data gathered by O’Biden
Finger pointing intensifies. We know its Trump’s fault. /s
Indeed state taxes should be going toward things like. Each state has their own challenges with regard to natural disaster risk…
Gov DeSantis is so on top of things he sends out Florida first responders, electricians, builders, and the like to go to *other* states when THEY need help.
Standard hogwash...
The local politicians are the ones who should have issued a warning, based on past experience...
You answer this by asking if the National Weather Service without layoffs during the Biden admin was incompetent and was responsible for the surprise flooding in the Ashville and surrounding areas where many more people died and were left to die after the major floods.
DOGE cuts do not go into effect until October 1st so I don’t see how that could be the problem.
Yes that seems to be the conclusion; that TX never learns.
Abbot needs to take a page out of DeSantis’ book.
I have a free app on my phone, MyRadar, that lets me see all the current weather, weather warnings, and the forecast for 2-3 days.
It provides about two hours of doppler playback, so I can see the progression of weather fronts and rain amounts.
Was nobody equipped with a cell phone?
Parts of this area are not within cell phone range, or some people are at camp and intentionally off the grid.
“It is a legitimate question and deserves to be answered.”
Are you so suggestable that the mere positing of the question by a Trump hating paper makes you think it is legitimate?
The answer is no.
Thank you. The damn left wasted no time in finger-pointing. Couldn’t they at least wait until everyone has been rescued/recovered?
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I am surprised they waited as long as they did for this crap.
They new heavy rain was coming, and they did start issuing warnings beforehand.
You can see this initial warning at midnight:
https://x.com/NWSWPC/status/1941005820969255187
“As CNN has previously reported, the NWS issued a flood watch early Thursday afternoon that highlighted Kerr County as a place at high risk of flash flooding through the overnight. A flash flood warning was issued for Kerr County as early as around 1 a.m. CT on Friday. A more dire flash flood emergency warning was then issued for Kerr County at 4:03 a.m. CT, followed by another one for Kerrville at 5:34 a.m. CT.”
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