Texas, flood
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NOAA cuts spark hurricane season fearsWe discuss President Trump’s NOAA cuts coming under increased scrutiny in the wake of the Texas floods. But the big question here in Florida is are we really ready for hurricane season? Capitol reporter Forrest Saunders joins us with what’s at stake.
"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.
Residents living south of the San Saba River in San Saba County have been ordered to evacuate due to river surging.
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.
Experts said the NWS did a good job warning about the flooding, but questions remain about whether the cuts played a role.
Through the rest of the evening on Sunday, the NWS is predicting a level two of four (slight) risk of storms across the majority of South Central Texas. Rainfall amounts of two to four inches is expected, while some areas could see pockets of nine to 12 inches of rainfall in certain regions.
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.
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.
From 1959 to 2019, 1,069 people died in Texas in flooding, which is nearly one-fifth of the total 5,724 flood fatalities in the Lower 48 states in that time, according to a 2021 study in the journal Water.