Ker County, Texas (KXAN) – After Deadly Hill Country Fluding, Texas’s Junior Republican US Senator is defending the National Weather Service, as the agency’s forecasts question time, urgency and communication.
“I think there are some eager to point out on the National Weather Service with Gov Greg Abbott at Ker County on Monday and said that there is a lack of warning during a press event on Monday at Ker County on Monday.”
In addition, on Monday, American Senate Democratic Leader Chak Shumar urged the Commerce Department to investigate NWS vacancies and did he contribute to the toll of death and influenced the agency’s ability to coordinate with local emergency officers.
“It is a national tragedy that people from all over the country are mourning,” Shumar Written to Duane TownsendActing Inspector General of Commerce Department. “American people are worth answering.”
The Trump administration gave an initial priority to the federal workforce in the second term of the President this year, and those deductions were extended to NWS.
KXAN is first NWS reported six vacancies at Austin/San Antonio, according to its online staff roster and NWS Employees Organization. These include three meteorologists, two technology staff members and one science officer. There are 26 employees in the office when having a complete staff.
“He had an additional manpower,” Kruz said. “In fact, he had three additional people working that night, guessing that it was going to be a very dangerous situation in the season.”
The NWS Austin/San Antonio Office issued a flash flood warning for a part of the county at 1:14 pm. Around 4 o’clock, the river increased more than 30 feet in less than two hours, According to USGS data,
While NWS has not responded to its timeline and staffing about KXAN’s specific questions, it provided additional details about those important hours of information going to:
- The National Water Center Flood Hazard Outlook, released on Thursday morning, indicated the expansion of flash flood capacity to include Kerville and surrounding areas.
- A flood clock was released by the NWS Austin/San Antonio Office at 1:18 am on Friday morning at 1:18 am.
- The weather prediction Center issued three Mesoskel rain discussions for the occurrence of excessive rainfall, which reflects the possibility of flash flood at 6:10 pm on Thursday.
- The National Water Center Area Hydrological Discussion #144 at 6:22 pm on Thursday at 6:22 pm, he messaged a lot of flood words for the north and west areas of San Antonio, including Kerville.
On Monday, White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson responded to KXAN’s inquiry, called the NWS operating “successful” around the flood.
Jackson wrote in an email, “NWS took advantage of the leverade tool to ensure wide awareness to the advanced devices such as Amber Alert Software directly on wireless devices, to ensure comprehensive awareness.” “While we mourn the tragic life lost in this disaster, NWS’s initial and continuous warnings saved countless others.”
Raise a question
Critics have questioned the effectiveness of those specific warnings in the rural and remote areas of Central Texas. Representing the administration on Saturday, Christie Nom, Secretary, Homeland Security, visited the area on the banks of the Gwadalup river, called the amount of rain “unprecedented” in the flood incident, widely referred to the administration’s goal to “fix” the technique of “fix” “fix” within the NOAA – NOAA.
“I take my concerns back into the federal government and take back to President Trump,” NoM said, accepting the need for advanced technology, “families have as much warning as possible.”
Whatever the NWS kept was also the information used by the state and its emergency management team – about the alert, or warning, heavy rains and the possibility of flash flooding, Abbott said at the Sunday Press Event.
“One problem is that flood floods will mean one thing for most people in the region, not what it turns out; because they deal with flash floods all the time,” Abbott said.
Abbott said that he discussed NWS alert with NOM during his visit over the weekend. In the upcoming special session – starting in two weeks – the Texas Legislature will address the reaction to weather events like this deadly flood, he said.
KXAN has reached the office of Abbott to see if he has been informed on NWS’s staffing and further comments. At the Sunday Press Conference, KXAN asked the governor if he had any concern about NWS vacancies that affect the warning before the flood recently.
Abbott said that he knew “nothing about staffing”, but knew the chronology of alert from that office.
On Monday, Cruz said that the local NWS office had actually three additional people who were working during the time, which were pioneers for floods, but already a flash flood’s “border” was also accepted, which was already challenging.
Cruise said, “Everyone will agree, if we can go back and do it again, we will especially empty young children, closest cabins of water, in the weakest areas,” Cruz said. “We will remove them and take them to high ground. If we can go back and do it again, obviously, everyone will be.”
He also warned against “biased” finger-pointing at this stage, suggesting a comprehensive public safety review after rescue and recovery would eventually require to ensure that “important roles have been maintained.”
Cruz said, “I think it is proper overtime to engage in a retrospective and to say at every level whether it can be better, because we all want to stop this horrific loss of life,” Kruz said. “But I think try to use it from both sides to attack political opponents … it is condemn and not the right approach, especially at a time when we are dealing with a crisis.”
Staffing effect
In an interview with NBC, Legislative Director of the NWS Employees Organization Tom Fhi defended the forecast alert of the leading weather service for the flood, while also accepting that the staffing cuts have reduced the manpower in offices across the country.
“Staff that we had in both San Angelo and San Antonio offices, we had enough employees to alert and warning to the public,” Fahi said. “Flood warning was released 12 hours before the incident.”
He said that predicting the precise severity, and that the 30 -foot wall wall would fall under the Guadalup, it is not possible for the forecast, he said.
While NWS has faced a lack of staffing over the years, the level of loss of this year is far more clear and related, he said.
Nearly 600 people have abandoned their NWS posts from the beginning of the Trump administration to 30 April, a change with “dramatic effects”, Fhi said. Fahi said that many people have been lost as NWS for retirement and attraction in the last 15 years, but the agency was capable of renting and filling those vacancies immediately, unlike, Fahi said.
When the Trump came to the office, he established a federal recruitment freeze through 15 July this year. The NWS cannot immediately fill its vacancies, but he has asked for a special view to do so, Fahi said.
“We are a tightly knit organization providing excellent results to the American public,” Fahi said. “It comes down to mathematics. It comes down to budget numbers, and we are small employees.”
‘Rain of Rainfall’
Dr. Venkataraman LakshmiProfessor of Engineering at the University of Virginia and Chairman of the Hydrology Section of the American Geophysical Union, also said that the forecast of the number of Guadalup feet near Kerville would be almost impossible.
Laxmi said, “It is more difficult to predict the rainfall to predict the rainfall.” “It is based on physical equations. It is based on atmospheric mobility. It is a very complex mathematical model.”
Lakshmi said that she had no knowledge of staffing vacancies at NWS, but, for the last 40 years, NWS has led the progress worldwide on weather forecasts. While the storm was already predicted, the Ker County tragedy was located so close to the water source that it left a very little response time.
“As a hydrologist, we are very worried about the lead time, but if you are sitting on the source of water, it is very difficult,” he said. “Sadly, there is no answer to the fury of rain and the fact is that it fell right in the most terrible place.”
