Unfortunately, even with better forecasting, it wouldn’t have been possible to predict exactly how much rain was going to fall or where in a storm like this, but just two days before all this started, they were literally predicting sunshine this weekend in Central Texas.
There’s a huge element of randomness in this kind of storm, where one area gets 15+" of rain while 30 miles away they only get 3", but a warning that excessive localized rainfall was a possibility would’ve been helpful.
I also blame the local government. Central Texas is flash flood central due to our geography, and all local governments should have emergency preparedness plans to send out push notifications to people in their areas. This all went down in the middle of the night and happened so fast that the local government got caught totally off guard though
The federal government has been dismantling weather systems left and right. Those systems could have given valuable minutes of warning. Flash floods do happen, but even 10 minutes of warning can pretty much save everyone.
The reason they did not have this warning is because of Donald Trump, And then after him every single republican politician.
The federal government has been dismantling weather systems left and right. Those systems could have given valuable minutes of warning. Flash floods do happen, but even 10 minutes of warning can pretty much save everyone.
All this is true
The reason they did not have this warning is because of Donald Trump. And then after him every single republican politician.
This is not clear. What does a warning from the NWS look like? Because they issued them:
At 4:06 a.m. the National Weather Service Austin/San Antonio posted on X: “A very dangerous flash flooding event is ongoing.” It ended: “Turn Around, Don’t Drown!”
Then, at 5:15 a.m. the National Weather Service San Angelo posted on X that there was a flash flood emergency. The Austin/San Antonio office posted on its X account about the emergency at 5:23 a.m. This type of alert is “exceedingly rare” and used when there is a “severe threat to human life and catastrophic damage,” according to the National Weather Service.
But how does this message get to people who are asleep? The best answer is the Wireless Emergency Alert system. I haven’t seen any information one way or the other indicating whether this system was activated in a timely manner. If it wasn’t, that was a serious mistake that costed lives.
Let me be clear that cuts to the NWS are going to end up costing lives. There is no doubt about that. But I think it’s important to understand the reality of a situation rather than reflexively blaming Trump
I agree with your points but it is extremely frustrating that they also are killing the science to try and have better predictions and not even bothering with managing climate change which will make these kind of events more frequent and more devastating. I am sure you already know but it is so damn frustrating. People are dying and it only is going to get worse.
Unfortunately, even with better forecasting, it wouldn’t have been possible to predict exactly how much rain was going to fall or where in a storm like this, but just two days before all this started, they were literally predicting sunshine this weekend in Central Texas.
There’s a huge element of randomness in this kind of storm, where one area gets 15+" of rain while 30 miles away they only get 3", but a warning that excessive localized rainfall was a possibility would’ve been helpful.
I also blame the local government. Central Texas is flash flood central due to our geography, and all local governments should have emergency preparedness plans to send out push notifications to people in their areas. This all went down in the middle of the night and happened so fast that the local government got caught totally off guard though
Silly human, push notifications are for hunting cop killers, not saving lives from floods!
/s.
The federal government has been dismantling weather systems left and right. Those systems could have given valuable minutes of warning. Flash floods do happen, but even 10 minutes of warning can pretty much save everyone.
The reason they did not have this warning is because of Donald Trump, And then after him every single republican politician.
All this is true
This is not clear. What does a warning from the NWS look like? Because they issued them:
But how does this message get to people who are asleep? The best answer is the Wireless Emergency Alert system. I haven’t seen any information one way or the other indicating whether this system was activated in a timely manner. If it wasn’t, that was a serious mistake that costed lives.
Let me be clear that cuts to the NWS are going to end up costing lives. There is no doubt about that. But I think it’s important to understand the reality of a situation rather than reflexively blaming Trump
I agree with your points but it is extremely frustrating that they also are killing the science to try and have better predictions and not even bothering with managing climate change which will make these kind of events more frequent and more devastating. I am sure you already know but it is so damn frustrating. People are dying and it only is going to get worse.
I very much agree