National Weather Service under fire after failing to warn of horror Texas floods that killed at least 50 people
At least 50 people - including 15 children - have died after the Guadalupe River surged nearly 30 feet above its normal height, devastating a children's summer camp and ripping apart families.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was brutally grilled over the delayed warning alerts Texas residents received before the monster flash flood was about to devastate the state.
Residents were not warned until 1:18pm on July 3, the day they began, and were told it was 'moderate' storms.
Many Texans have blamed the slow updates as part of the reason at least 50 have lost their lives and 27 are still missing.
Finger pointing has landed on the National Weather Service which had recently begun the process of hiring 100 new employees.
However, this came months after around 600 people were fired from the agency in recent months as part of massive cuts to the federal government under Trump, according to NPR.
By April, nearly half of NWS forecast offices had 20 percent vacancy rates.
Noem joined Governor Greg Abbott and other state personnel for a press conference on Saturday, where a journalist grilled the cabinet member on the delayed warning from the National Weather Service.
She blamed the 'ancient system' and said the Trump Administration would look into renewing the system to better work for US citizens.
'The weather is extremely difficult to predict,' Noem said. 'But also that 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 notification.'
She said the Trump Administration is working to 'fix' and 'update the technology.'
'We needed to renew this ancient system that has been left in place with the federal government for many, many years and that is the reforms that are ongoing there.'
Noem did not bring up how the Trump Administration had proposed cuts for FEMA and NOAA, both of which help during natural disasters.
The proposal includes cutting NOAA's weather laboratories that research severe storms, as well as, its hub for climate science coordination and research.
The cuts led to a Florida meteorologist to sound the alarm on what a decimated NWS would do just a month ago.
NBC 6 hurricane specialist John Morales used a June 3 segment to warn about cuts to both the NWS and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
With the Atlantic hurricane season kicking off on Sunday, Morales warned the budget cuts will impact his ability to predict and track storms.
'As you've grown accustomed to my presentations over my 34 years in South Florida newscast, confidently, I went on TV and told you, "It's going to turn. You don't need to worry,"' he said.
'I'm here to tell you I'm not sure I can do that this year, Because of the cuts — the gutting, the sledgehammer attack on science in general.'
Morales claimed the Trump Administration's cuts will have a 'multi-generation impact on science in this country' and advised his viewers to call their representatives.
'What we're starting to see is that the quality of the forecasts is becoming degraded,' he said.
'There's also a chance because of some of these cuts that NOAA hurricane hunter aircraft will not be able to fly this year and with less reconnaissance missions may be flying blind. And we may not exactly know how strong a hurricane is before it reaches the coastline.'
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasted last week that this year's season is expected to bring as many as 10 hurricanes.
Meanwhile, Texas continues the rescue effort, as Governor Greg Abbott said the search for survivors will continue 24 hours a day.
'We will find every one of them,' he promised on Saturday, while calling the state's response to the tragedy 'quintessentially Texas.'
'When Texas faces a challenge, we come together, we unite,' he said, while sitting next to Noem.
'It's what Texans do, it's what we will continue to do... We will not stop today or tomorrow, we will stop when it's finish.'
He also signed a request for federal aid, which Noem said the president is expected to sign.
Earlier today, harrowing images emerged showing the remains of a the leveled summer camp where at least three campers lost their lives after it was deluged by deadly flood waters.
At least three campers were killed when the unprecedented current slammed the camp as the girls slept.
Dozens more people, including other campers, are still missing.
Among those confirmed dead are 15 children, including the three young girls who were attending the popular Hunt, Texas summer camp.
Renee Smajstrla, eight, Janie Hunt, nine, and Sarah Marsh all perished when the camp was washed away by the flood waters.
Among the other confirmed dead are: Jeff Ramsey and Jane Ragsdale, the director of Heart O' the Hills, another nearby summer camp. And 850 people have been rescued by authorities as of Saturday evening.
Heartbreaking pictures show how the side of the summer camp was completely wrenched away by the floods.
Inside, sodden beds and blankets of the campers can be seen covered in a thick sludge and belongings such as bags and clothing are also seen strewn across the floor.
Another build saw its roof sag over the ruined building as pieces of jagged wood splintered underneath it.
A 27-year-old father, Julian Ryan, also reportedly died while attempting to save his family after water flooded their in nearby Ingram.
As water quickly rose to their knees, Ryan punched a window to get his fiancée, children, and his mother out of the home safely and onto the roof.
However, his life-saving punch severed an artery in his arm and 'almost cut it clean off,' his fiancée, Christinia Wilson, told KHOU.
Hours later, he told them: ''I'm sorry, I'm not going to make it. I love y'all.'
His body was recovered later that morning after the water receded. The family has since started a GoFundMe to help cover the costs of his funeral services.
Experts have also surfaced fears that Lake Lyndon B. Johnson, which is near Austin, will burst as the Llano River is near its crest and flows quickly toward the body of water.
'Boaters need to get off the water ASAP. Debris-filled fast-moving water will arrive rapidly,' CBS Austin Meteorologist, Avery Tomasco, warned.
The river is flowing at a whopping 125,000 cubic-feet-per-second - nearly three times as fast as it was mere hours ago.
The rising river levels come after unprecedented surge of the Guadalupe River.
Parts of the Lone Star State are expected to be lashed by up to five more inches of rain late Saturday, further stoking fears for dozens of people still missing - some areas are even bracing for up to 10 more inches of rain.
Several counties - including Travis and Burnet Counties - remain under a flash flood emergency as flood waters are tearing down homes, sweeping away children, and leaving families devastated.
The loved ones of the missing are desperately begging for help in finding their loved ones.
In lighter news, four Camp Mystic campers feared missing have since been confirmed found by their families - Ella Bennett, a Camp Mystic counselor, and Annie Flack, a camper.
While, two other unidentified campers have also been found and were airlifted to safety.
At least two dozen more still have not been found.
Another survivor was captured in a dramatic rescue after she was swept nearly 12 miles downstream by raging floods.
The terrified youngster was pictured clinging to the branches of a tree as the rapids swelled beneath her.
The girl, who is yet to be identified, was later taken to safety, News 4 San Antonio reports.
A separate video showed a helicopter airlifting an individual to safety after the unprecedented flooding.
Officials have since launched a massive rescue effort to locate dozens of missing individuals.
As the extensive search efforts continue, identities of the missing have begun to emerge with families sharing photos of their loved ones in hopes of learning information about their whereabouts.
The family of an eight-year-old girl named Renee Smajstrla has confirmed that she was among those who lost her life during the tragic floods.
Her uncle, Shawn Salta, shared on Facebook: 'We are thankful she was with her friends and having the time of her life, as evidenced by this picture from yesterday. She will forever be living her best life at Camp Mystic.'
Heart O' the Hills camp was also impacted by the flood path. The camp shared in an announcement on their website that their director and co-owner, Jane Ragsdale, died in the flood.
'We are mourning the loss of a woman who influenced countless lives and was the definition of strong and powerful,' Heart O' the Hills said.
A friend of Jane's shared their last text exchange on social media, writing to her that she was thinking of the camp as the summertime approached.
'Aw! Thanks. It's definitely our time of year, what we love and live for,' Jane replied.
Heart O' the Hills added in their statement they weren't in session during the floods and most of those on the site were accounted for and on high ground.
Terrified parents of those missing said they have been left in limbo as they await news from the ongoing searches.
Officials have stressed they hope to rescue many of the missing and say they're still hopeful of finding most of those missing safe and well.
Among those named missing: are Linnie McCown, Anna Margaret Bellows, Mary Grace Baker, Greta Toranzo, Lainey Landry, Kelly Anne Lytal, Margaret Sheedy, Virginia Hollis, Cile Stewart, Wynne Naylor, Molly Dewitt, Blakely McCrory, Hadley Hanna, Ella Cahill, Joyce Badon, Reese Manchaca, and Aidan Heartfield.
The sheer scale of destruction - with buildings ripped from their foundations and cars swept away like toys - suggests that may be an overly optimistic prediction.
At a press conference late on Friday evening, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said the floods had been devastating, and declared that 'we need God more than ever.'
'It needs God, but it also needs a robust response... searches will continue in the darkness of night, and they will continue' into the early hours of Saturday, Abbott said.
'We'll put in everything we have in the entire state.'
At least 14 helicopters, 12 drones and more than 500 people from various units have joined search efforts, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said at the press conference.
Over 150 people were airlifted from danger during the extensive search and rescue efforts by Texas authorities throughout Friday.
Officials said at the press conference on Friday night that a total of 237 people were rescued by authorities through the day, with many more still unaccounted for.
The massive flood shocked local officials in Kerr County, with local Judge Rob Kelly admitting that 'no one knew this kind of flood was coming.'
President Donald Trump also broke his silence on the devastating floods, as he pledged to fully support the ongoing recovery efforts.
'It's terrible, the floods, it's shocking,' he said late Friday evening.
Trump was asked by reporters if he would provide federal aid to the area, to which he responded: 'We'll take care of them.'
'It's a terrible thing,' he added.
Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said that the Coast Guard was 'punching through storms to evacuate Americans from central Texas.
'We will fly throughout the night and as long as possible. This is what the men and women of the U.S. Coast Guard do,' she added.
The remarks came as footage from the ongoing searches of the Guadalupe River show a helicopter heroically saving someone from the flood damage.
The footage showed a person being hoisted from the river as one of 14 helicopters deployed during the searches lifted them to safety.
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The Guardian
25 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Weather tracker: supercharged storms hit Texas's ‘Flash Flood Alley'
Texas was hit by catastrophic flash floods on Friday after powerful thunderstorms unleashed torrential rainfall across the region. Kerr County, in the south-central Hill Country, received more than 300mm of rain in just a few hours. As of Sunday evening, at least 68 people had been confirmed dead, and 28 girls were missing after flood waters tore through a summer camp. In just two hours, the Guadalupe River surged by more than 6 metres (20ft), sweeping away vehicles and inundating homes. The storms were supercharged by moisture from the remnants of tropical storm Barry, which had struck Mexico earlier in the weekand drawn saturated air from the Gulf, and instability in the atmosphere facilitated by a low-level jet stream. Climate change is expected to increase the likelihood of these events, as warmer air can hold more moisture. The Hill Country's rugged topography, marked by steep hills, canyons, and valleys, amplifies the risk and impact of flash flooding, and it is often referred to as 'Flash Flood Alley'. On top of that, the area's limestone and granite terrain exacerbates runoff, because water struggles to soak into the ground. Meanwhile, what began as a tropical depression near the north-west of the Philippines rapidly intensified into Typhoon Danas over the weekend and struck Taiwan on Sunday morning with winds reaching 85mph and torrential rain. Almost 3,000 people had to evacuate their homes. Originally expected to head towards Thailand, the storm altered its course over the weekend, veering northwards across the Taiwan Strait. On Sunday, more than 150mm of rainfall was recorded in parts of Taiwan, causing landslides and flash flooding. Further heavy rainfall hit the region on Monday morning. Typhoon Danas is projected to continue its path north-east across the South China Sea, hitting south-east China by midweek. Yellow weather warnings have been issued in Fujian and southern Zhejiang provinces, where wind speeds may reach up to 90mph and more than 130mm of rainfall is expected by Wednesday. However, the exact trajectory of the storm remains uncertain and may shift in the coming days. Although Thailand was spared a direct hit, the typhoon has amplified the region's monsoon, intensifying the south-westerly winds and drawing in more saturated air from the surrounding ocean. Consequently, northern Thailand has seen an increased humidity and widespread heavy rainfall, which is expected to reach over 90mm in 24 hours in places, bringing the risk of flash flooding and landslides to 33 provinces, particularly near the Mekong River.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
‘A river with a temper' returns to calm after wreaking deadly devastation in Texas
The Guadalupe River had returned to calm by Saturday evening and was beginning to give up its grim secrets, as 70 people – many of them children – were recovered from what just a day earlier was a terrifying flash flood that had turned land into water, taken homes and retreated to leave miles of terrible devastation along its banks. At Camp Mystic, on a bend in the river flanked by cliffs that sped the torrent as if through a chicane, 700 young girls had five days earlier joined for a month-long summer camp of fun and spiritual growth, the evening brought a strange calm to Texas Hill country. There were the flashlights of emergency vehicles; search helicopters clattered overhead; and wrecked cars marked as searched and clear with paint. A drenched mattress could be seen in the high branches of trees. Homes were obliterated, now stuffed with debris, as rescue workers continued to pull the camp girls and adults from the muddy waters. Crystal Lampard was at her home up a road 150ft from the river early Friday when the first flood alerts started coming through on her phone. 'My husband and I woke up about 2.45 to a loud boom that was probably one of the transformers,' she said. It was raining, but there was nothing to suggest an apocalyptic scene developing below. 'This type of thing – you don't get a warning,' she said. 'We knew the rain was coming but not what we got. 'That water comes down those hills [and] this is where it goes. So if it's pouring 11 inches up at the headwaters, it's got to come here,' she said. 'But there was no indication that's what it would be.' Yet surveying the cypress trees combed flat by flood waters along the Guadalupe's banks, bent canoes and other detritus, Lampard, 51, said the houses that used to be on there – and the people in them – were gone. 'It doesn't matter if you knew them or not – those poor babies,' Lampard said of the children killed by the flood. 'My heart breaks. This river is beautiful but she does get ugly. 'She's a beautiful river with a temper. It's going to be a while before everything is cleaned up, and a while before everybody is found – if they're found.' Her friend, Alisha Sore, 26, said her family had planned to go to the river on Friday for an Independence Day cookout with hotdogs and fireworks. Sore, too, said she gets weather alerts and received a flood alert early Friday morning – but 'there was nothing letting us know it was 20ft tall and we're under water.' On Thursday, a former classmate, Julian Ryan, gave Sore's dad a hug at the bar. He had just become a father for a second time. But hours later, as waters rose furiously, Ryan punched his hand through a window to help his family escape their home, severed an artery, and bled to death. Now, the flood waters were heading to areas downriver. 'They're getting our flood on top of where they're sitting,' Sore said. An initial flood watch for the area was issued at 1.18pm on Thursday predicting rain amounts of between 5 and 7in (12.7 to 17.8 cm). The weather messaging included automated alerts delivered to mobile phones to people in threatened areas. Those warnings grew increasingly ominous in Friday's early hours, urging people to move to higher ground and evacuate flood-prone areas. And as questions are asked about whether meterologists missed the signs of the storm's force, and if alert systems were enough, many in the area grappled with flashbacks to another deadly flood nearly four decades earlier. Some recalled one such emergency a few miles downriver in Comfort in July 1987, when a caravan of buses attempted to escape from a church camp through a low water crossing after an overnight storm. When the buses stalled, the teenagers attempted to form a human chain – and a wall of water washed them away. Ten were killed. 'You can't do anything in 45 minutes,' Lampard said, referring to the window of time she estimated having to flee after it became evident the flood threat was much more serious than initially estimated. 'If we'd try to leave out of here, we would have drove right into it.' Amanda Chaney, who was on the road checking on neighbors, said several of her house-cleaning clients had lost their homes. 'I had my phone on, and I kept getting alerts,' she said. 'But the rain didn't seem much heavier than usual.' Chaney said she noted how emergency responders had 'spread out in different locations instead of planting them all in one'. She interpreted that as a sign of the uncertainty surrounding where the storm which triggered the flood would cause the most damage. At an emergency rescue staging post outside Hunt, a few miles below Camp Mystic and one of the hardest hit hamlets, workers said they had recovered over 15 bodies. By Saturday afternoon, emergency crews from all over the state had converged on the valley. 'Honestly, there could have maybe been more warnings,' said Justin Barnatt, who had driven with his crew 250 miles in three hours from Odessa in west Texas. 'But the river rose 29ft in maybe 45 minutes, and it was three or four o'clock in the morning.' Gunner Alexander, 14, who was resting in the back of an off-road vehicle, said: 'We're not used to seeing our town like this. It's sad – people you know whose house is gone.' He said he knew two girls at Camp Mystic. One had for sure gotten on an evacuation bus, he said. Alexander said the storm's strength was unexpected. 'The rain gauges on our apps showed 3 to 4in,' he remarked. 'It came all of a sudden. It was really unexpected.' Despite the scale of the deadly devastation, he said everyone he knew was trying to find a way to help out fellow community members. Up at Camp Mystic, as night began to fall, tender scenes began to reveal themselves. A man who gave his name as Bobby appeared from the river, drenched and out of breath. Officials had pleaded with the public to leave the search-and-rescue work left to be done to professionals. Yet Bobby drove up two hours from San Antonio to assist. 'I don't work for anyone except for Bobby,' he said. 'I do this completely voluntarily. It's the right thing to do. There's never enough rescue workers. The more rapid the response, the more chance there is of survivors.' A mile downstream, 55-year-old Dan Murray said he had flown down from San Francisco to search for his best friend, his best friend's wife and their son – whose holiday home had been swept clean off its foundations. Neither the home nor its occupants have been found. But their daughter, who they had been coming to collect from Camp Mystic, had survived. 'They haven't found them yet so I have hope – but coming and seeing this utter devastation is rocking my belief that everything is going to be OK,' he said. 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The Guardian
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The ongoing challenges of forecasting extreme weather during the era of the climate crisis have been brought to the fore again amid catastrophic flash flooding in the 'hill country' region of Texas. As of early Sunday, hundreds of rescuers are searching for at least 12 people still missing as rains taper off outside of San Antonio and Austin. Hundreds of people have already been pulled from floodwaters that have killed nearly 70 people so far, many of them children at a summer camp along the banks of the Guadalupe River. July is peak flash flood season in the US, and central Texas is known as 'flash flood alley' because the necessary ingredients of tropical moisture and slow-moving storms come together often over hilly terrain there. National Weather Service (NWS) forecasters caution that more floods could come this weekend and into next week. 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Additionally, the NWS office in Austin/San Antonio — which has primary responsibility for Kerr County — is missing a warning coordination officer, a leadership position whose primary function is to be a decision-making point of contact for local officials and the general public, especially during dangerous weather. Although these positions are vacant, both offices had additional staff working the night shifts on 4 July that performed similar duties. The total staff vacancies at these offices are typical for the pre-Trump era and fewer than the current average staff shortage across the NWS. The local offices have also not been experiencing any lapses in weather balloon data collection that have plagued some other offices. In fact, weather balloon data gathered on Thursday from nearby Del Rio showed record amounts of moisture present in the upper atmosphere above central Texas and added to the confidence that severe flash flooding was possible. The Austin/San Antonio office then began issuing a series of flood watches starting on Thursday afternoon that cautioned the region to prepare for 'excessive runoff' from '5 to 7 inches of rain'. The NWS's Weather Prediction Center, based in College Park, Maryland, also issued a series of mesoscale precipitation discussions on Thursday – highly detailed advance notices to other weather forecasters that a particularly rare event might be underway. In one of the discussions, forecasters noted that moisture content in central Texas was 'above the 99th climatological percentile' – far in excess of normal and a clue that historic flooding was possible. In a final escalation, the NWS office in Austin/San Antonio issued a flash flood emergency about an hour before the water started rapidly rising beyond flood stage at the closest US Geological Survey river monitoring gauge. A flash flood emergency is the highest level of flood warning available to the NWS, and sufficient to set off the Wireless Emergency Alert system, which would have triggered cellphone alarms in the region. The National Weather Service issued dozens of additional flash flood warnings throughout the day on Friday and Saturday after the second wave of extremely heavy rains compounded the flooding's scope across central Texas during the early morning hours. Even though watches and warnings were issued on time throughout the disaster – contrasting what local officials have said in press conferences – rainfall totals specified in the first flash flood watch were about half of what ultimately fell. Current weather forecasting technology is capable of knowing that near-record rainfall may occur somewhere in a given region about a day in advance, but knowing exactly how much and in which part of a specific river's drainage basin over hilly terrain makes flood forecasting much more difficult – analogous to prediction exactly which neighborhood a tornado might strike a day ahead of time. Donald Trump's staffing cuts have particularly hit the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Environmental Modeling Center, which aims to improve the skill of these types of difficult forecasts. Though it's unclear to what extent staffing shortages across the NWS complicated the advance notice that local officials had of an impending flooding disaster, it's clear that this was a complex, compound tragedy of a type that climate warming is making more frequent. Rainfall intensity in central Texas has been trending upward for decades, and this week's rains were enhanced by the remnants of Tropical Storm Barry, which made landfall in northern Mexico last week. Barry's circulation pulled record amounts of atmospheric moisture up to central Texas from the near-record warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The mix of Barry's circulation and climate warming helped create conditions of record-high atmospheric moisture content over central Texas – in line with the trend towards increasing atmospheric moisture content globally as the world warms and the air can hold more water vapor.
