Trump defends NWS forecast ahead of Texas flood
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On the night the deadly floodwaters raged down the Guadalupe River in Texas, the National Weather Service forecast office in Austin/San Antonio was missing a key member of its team: the warning coordination meteorologist,
The early warnings and alerts from the National Weather Service didn’t indicate a catastrophic flood was on its way.
"It's not community to community. It's a national system," Sen. Maria Cantwell said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan."
Search crews continued the grueling task of recovering the missing as more potential flash flooding threatened Texas Hill Country.
The National Weather Service issued timely alerts, meteorologists say, but few were listening in the hours before the early-morning flash floods along the Guadalupe River
The first weather emergency alert sent by the National Weather Service with urgent language instructing people to "seek higher ground now" was sent at 4:03 a.m. local time.
Former federal officials and outside experts have warned for months that President Donald Trump’s staffing cuts to the National Weather Service could endanger lives.
Some experts say staff shortages might have complicated forecasters’ ability to coordinate responses with local emergency management officials.