KERRVILLE, TEXAS — Both state and federal officials are facing severe backlash on why residents were not alerted sooner or told to evacuate before the catastrophic floods in Central Texas that has left over two dozen dead and 27 girls from Camp Mystic missing.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was peppered with questions about whether the federal government did enough to warn Texans about the floods and weather conditions.
When asked by a reporter if the federal government failed Texans, Noem, sitting alongside Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said that “everybody knows that the weather is extremely difficult to predict.”
“The National Weather Service over the years, at times, has done well, and at times, we have all wanted more time and more warning and more alerts and more notification,” she said. “That is something, and one of the reasons that when President Trump took office that he said he wanted to fix and is currently upgrading the technology. And the National Weather Service has indicated that, with that and NOAA, that we needed to renew this ancient system that has been left in place with the federal government for many, many years.”
However, the Trump administration did implement cuts that significantly impacted the National Weather Service, which reduced staffing and funding for weather labs.
However, Noem said the storm that caused the flooding was “unpredictable in the way that it reacted”.
“I’m sorry I can’t speak to when that is, but I do carry your concerns back to the federal government, to President Trump and we will do all we can to fix those kinds of things that may have felt like a failure to you and to your community members,” she said.
The National Weather Service did send out alerts in the early hours of the morning before issuing flash flood emergencies but state officials insisted that no one saw the flood potential coming.
“There’s going to be a lot of finger-pointing, a lot of second-guessing and Monday morning quarterbacking,” said Republican U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX). “There’s a lot of people saying ‘why’ and ‘how,’ and I understand that.”
