Texas, AI and flooding
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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 flood warning comes after dozens were killed recently when the Guadalupe River burst its banks amid heavy rain.
Major flooding is expected for parts of Texas near the Frio River, the National Weather Service warns. See which counties are at risk Monday.
For years, employees say, they've had to do more with less. But the ability to fill in the gaps became strained to the breaking point when the Trump administration began pushing new staffing cuts.
The flood warning is in effect until Tuesday, July 15, at 7 a.m. for the Frio River. NWS said that major flooding is forecast for the Frio River below Dry Frio, with the National Water Prediction Service predicting the river will hit 18.6 feet at around 5 p.m. The major flood stage for the Frio River is 17 feet.
"It's not community to community. It's a national system," Sen. Maria Cantwell said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan."
Some governors and mayors are concerned over how current or potential cuts to agencies will impact how the government can respond in the future to major weather events.
Q: Is it true that if President Donald Trump hadn’t defunded the National Weather Service, the death toll in the Texas flooding would have been far lower or nonexistent? A: The Trump administration did not defund the NWS but did reduce the staff by 600 people.
Experts said the NWS did a good job warning about the flooding, but questions remain about whether the cuts played a role.
Parts of Central Texas are under yet another flood watch this weekend. The impacted areas are the same as those hit by the July 4 deadly floods.
A new report from Stacker using data from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information lists five east Texas counties in the top 50 in Texas for tornadic activities over the past 20 years.