Officials in Texas are blaming National Weather Service (NWS) forecasts for not predicting “the amount of rain that we saw” after deadly flash flooding along the Guadalupe River on Friday.
At least 24 people were killed in the flood and dozens are still missing including 23 people listed as unaccounted for at an all-girls Christian summer camp.
“The original forecast we received on Wednesday from the National Weather Service predicted 3-6 inches of rain in the Concho Valley and 4-8 inches of rain in the hill country,” W. Nim Kidd, director of the Texas Division of Emergency Management said.
“The amount of rain that fell in these locations was never in any of their forecasts. Everybody got the forecast from the National Weather Service. They did not predict the amount of rain that we saw,” Kidd added.
Since returning to office in January, Trump has cut around 20 percent of the workforce at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the parent agency of NWS.
Experts warned at the time that the cuts spearheaded by Elon Musk’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ (DOGE), could imperil public safety by hindering timely warnings of severe weather events.
“Our worst nightmare is that weather forecast offices will be so understaffed that there will be needless loss of life. We know that’s a nightmare shared by those on the forecasting front lines—and by the people who depend on their efforts,” five former NWS directors wrote in an open letter published in May.
In response to the letter, a spokesperson for the Commerce Department, which oversees NOAA, said that “NOAA does not anticipate any disruptions in services as a result of staff reorganizations and the NWS will continue to meet its mission of ensuring public safety amid critical weather events.”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick also defended the cuts to Congress last month saying, “we are transforming how we track storms and forecast weather with cutting-edge technology. Under no circumstances am I going to let public safety or public forecasting be touched.”
