WASHINGTON — The White House on Monday defended the National Weather Service after questions and scrutiny after the deadly floods in Texas over the weekend.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt began Monday’s briefing by defending the federal response, lashing out against those who’ve questioned the federal cuts to the NWS and accused Democrats of playing political games.
“Unfortunately, in the wake of this once in a generation natural disaster, we have seen many falsehoods pushed by Democrats such as Senator Chuck Schumer and some members of the media,” Leavitt said. “Blaming President Trump for these floods is a depraved lie, and it serves no purpose during this time of national mourning.”
Texas officials confirmed 104 people, including more than two dozen children, are dead after heavy rain led to severe flash flooding in Kerrville, Texas.
Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer called for an investigation into the cuts made to NWS by the administration had any effect on the devastation.
“Following the disastrous and deeply devastating flash flooding in Texas this weekend, I write to urge you to immediately to open an investigation into the scope, breadth, and ramifications of whether staffing shortages at key local National Weather Service (NWS) stations contributed to the catastrophic loss of life and property during the deadly flooding,” Schumer said in a letter to Commerce Department Acting Inspector General Roderick Anderson.
Leavitt ran through a list of NWS updates, pointing to the overstaffing at the NWS Austin/San Antonio office. She added a flood warning was issued for Bandera and Kerr counties at 1:14 a.m. on Friday, July 4 and was upgraded over two hours later.
“This was an act of God, it is not the administration’s fault that the flood hit when it did but there were early and consistent warnings,” Leavitt said. “And again, the National Weather Service did its job.”
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said in an interview he would want a “period of retrospection” following recovery efforts to examine what went wrong.
“Now, after we come through search and rescue, after we come through the process of rebuilding, there will naturally be a period of retrospection where you look back and say, ‘Okay, what exactly transpired, what was the timeline, and what could have been done differently to prevent this loss of life?’ And that’s a natural process,” Cruz said.
