The Democratic National Committee on Monday blamed President Donald Trump’s staffing cuts to the National Weather Service for the deadly Texas floods over the weekend—even after meteorologists and union officials said that forecasts were accurate and staffing levels were sufficient.
“Under Donald Trump, the National Weather Service lost nearly 600 staff, and San Angelo and San Antonio offices were short-staffed during tragic Texas floods,” a DNC press release says, blaming staffing cuts by the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency.
The DNC’s accusation has been widely debunked by meteorologists and in media reports, including from Wired and Newsweek. Meteorologists confirmed on Saturday that the NWS accurately forecast the catastrophic floods, which have killed at least 90 people, including 27 children, since the early hours of Friday.
CBS Austin meteorologist Avery Tomasco wrote on X that the NWS “did their job and they did it well,” while Houston-based meteorologist Matt Lanza wrote in a blog post that “we have seen absolutely nothing to suggest that current staffing or budget issues within NOAA and the NWS played any role at all in this event.”
“Anyone using this event to claim that is being dishonest,” Lanza went on.
The NWS issued flash flood warnings Thursday night, giving “preliminary lead times of more than three hours before warning criteria were met,” the agency said in a statement to Newsweek.
The NWS office in New Braunfels, Texas—which provides forecasts for Austin, San Antonio, and other flood-hit areas—also had extra staffers on duty during the flooding, NWS meteorologist Jason Runyen said, according to the Associated Press.
“False claims about the NWS have been repeatedly debunked by meteorologists, experts, and other public reporting,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Newsweek.
Read the full article here
