Texas flood death toll mounts as questions asked over warning system • FRANCE 24 English

The river rose by 8 m, more than a twostory building in just 45 minutes, leaving nothing but devastation behind. In all, at least 82 people killed, including around 30 children swept away this weekend by those flash floods in Texas as rescuers continue to scour the landscape for any sign of anyone alive or any bodies. Now, new warnings that more rain is also on the way amid questions as well about why any warnings did not come sooner. Donald Trump calling those floods a 100year catastrophe that nobody expected as he said he will probably visit the scene later this week. But real pressure on him after recent cuts to forecasters in light of the floods. Do you think that the federal government needs to hire back any of the meteorologists who were fired in the last few months? I I wouldn’t know that. I really would I would think not. This was the thing that happened in seconds. Nobody expected it. Nobody saw it. Uh very talented people are there and they didn’t see it. It’s I guess they said once in a hundred years they’ve never seen anything like this. So I wouldn’t uh I mean people are trying to blame the school. They’re trying to blame the camp. They’re trying to blame it. It’s just a horrible thing. But no, I wouldn’t say that. Now Donald Trump there. Well, earlier we spoke to our correspondent Wasim Cornet who said criticism is growing on the authorities for failing to predict the floods. County records show that Kerr County, which has been the epicenter of this disaster, had begun exploring uh installing a new warning system nine years ago. At the time, the county commissioner called that area of central Texas probably the highest risk area for flooding in the state and called the warning system at the time quote pretty antiquated. Unfortunately, that warning system that was in place 9 years ago has not been upgraded uh to this day. They had discussed uh installing speakers and sirens across across critical parts of the Guadalupe River where this disaster happened, but that was not done. Um questions also surrounding the issuing of warning. The National Weather Service has been hit hard by personnel cuts, by funding cuts, research cuts over the past few months since Donald Trump was inaugurated back in January. The nearest the two nearest weather offices nearest uh the Kurr County where this disaster happened has been missing some staff members, but weather warnings were issued throughout the day and leading up to this disaster. The first flood watch was issued Thursday afternoon, but unfortunately with much lower rainfall amounts. Those weather models were not picking up on the extreme uh indication of this event, forecasting between 13 to 18 cm of rain. Ultimately, as much as 38 centimeters of rain fell. The first flash flood warning came in at around 1:14 in the morning Friday morning. The first flash flood emergency, that is the highest level warning, came in at 4:00 in the morning. But the Guadalupe River burst it banks burst its banks just an hour later. episode giving very little time to react.

Search teams plodded through mud-laden riverbanks and flew aircraft over the flood-stricken landscape of central Texas for a fourth day on Monday, looking for dozens of people still missing from a disaster that has claimed at least 82 lives. Meanwhile, questions have been raised over whether cuts to the federal workforce by the Trump administration, including to the agency that oversees the National Weather Service, led to a failure by officials to accurately predict the severity of the floods and issue appropriate warnings ahead of the storm.
#Texas #floods #Trump

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18 comments

  2. Trump and Musk fired most of the weather warning staff (NOAA, FEMA and others) saying they were not needed, should be abolished, climate change is a hoax, to give the money to Trump and friends. He never knows anything about events, will never visit or send condolences and really doesn't care. That's where we are.

  5. Intense rainfall events are increasing due to climate change. Extreme weather events are harder to forecast because the entire system is changing. That's not the time to sack experts.

  6. To the tune of "hey teacher"

    "We don't need no reg-u-lation"
    "We can build on flood-plains"
    "We don't need no big go–vern-ment"
    "We don't need no weathermen"
    "Hey Donald, D-O-GE everything!"
    "Just give us war and a few very rich men"
    "All we want is cuts, and RICHER BILLIONAIRES!"

  7. Climate change is here last 50 – 60 y.- and nobody expected intense rainfall,
    maybe in USA are new kind of rivers, which flow through air a do not damage anything on the ground.

  9. Floods like this, wild fires, increased tornadoes and hurricanes all have been warned about for more than 50 years but folk preferred to 'accept' the lies of the oil producers over the hard truths of climate scientists. They have even managed to make the science itself suspect in the eyes of public who want the status quo to continue. Until enough die and suffer so that mankind's destruction of life on this planet is too obvious to ignore governments will continue to kow tow to their paymasters. Democracy is dead.
    Otherwise the US znd UK would stop funding Israel's land grab.

  10. Poor State and Local Emergency readiness and early warning. Cuts in FEMA, and all Federal Services. The Feds sent alerts but local authorities are incompetent, and untrained. Equipment not available nor tested. I am sorry for the loss of innocent lives. This is expected every year! And getting worse every year globally

  11. Republicans in January wrote executive orders to get rid of the early warning system it no longer goes across the entire United States at the same time also they got rid of the public radio and the public TV PBS it's systematically getting rid of everything that helped or save the lives of the poor Americans that didn't spend a million dollars to be in Republicans inauguration

  14. It is called ''''National Emergency Alert"" system.
    By Federal Law All radio Stations and Television stations are hooked up to it.
    All newer smart phones are hooked up to it.
    You will find it in the settings on the phone, it should be turned ON by default.
    If not, turn it manually "''ON""" and leave it """ON"""
    The Alert was sent about 4am to phones, warning of a "'"Flash Flood""" Emergency.
    You get a Loud Audio Alert and message Alert on your phone home screen.
    Tap on it and the message opens up, it stays on the phone until you manually turn the message off.
    Those Emergency Alerts means you take action """NOW""" not after you go shopping for a new GUCCI hand bag.

  15. This is what happens when white men are in charge – disaster – We need more women in representation, in lawmaking and oversight.

  17. It must add insult to injury as a parent when you voted for Trump and supported him, calling weather service agencies and flood warning systems “fraud and waste” and firing them, supporting deregulation to build in flood zones, and then this happens to you. The bizarre thing is these people will never admit they were wrong, and will continue to support Trump and make excuses even if he says “There’s nothing we could have done better here. Nothing.” It’s also weird how the people harmed by Trump’s policies the most are often those who were tricked into supporting him, and they don’t even realize it.

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