US President Donald Trump has committed to modernizing US outdated systems warning warnings after the catastrophic floods killed at least 43 people, including 15 children, across Central Texas early Friday morning.
The Ministry of the Ministry of the Internal Security said Kristi Noem that the administration was determined to repair what it described as “ancient” prognosis technology, which did not provide early warnings before the fatal floods.
“This is one of the reasons why President Trump joined office, he said he wanted to remedy and is currently upgrading technology,” Noem said at a Saturday press conference along with civil servants.
“We know that everyone wants more warning time, so we try to upgrade technologies that have been neglected for too long,” she added.
However, it did not report the timeline to complete the improvement.
Federal cuts and crisis
Calls for modernization are coming, although Trump’s administration has dramatically reduced the staffing in agencies responsible for prognosis and climate research.
At the beginning of this year, Senator Maria Cantwell revealed that at least 880 employees were cut off from NOAA, supervising the national meteorological service and critical observational network that feeds on predictions.
“Ancient” systems under fire
Officials are now facing a growing criticism of a late warning that has left little time to escape from rising waters.
Noem acknowledged that the flood revealed the glaring weaknesses in federal warning of the weather.
“We needed to restore this ancient system, which has been left with the federal government for many years, and these are the reforms that are going on there,” she said.
She quoted her time as a governor and congressman to emphasize how unpredictable weather could be, but stressed that communities deserve a better notice.
“The weather is extremely difficult to predict,” Noem insisted. “But also … the National Meteorological Service, over the years, sometimes did well, and sometimes we all wanted more time and more warnings.”
A flood watch called “mild”
Although a flood watch was issued before the disaster, Noem described it as a “mild” warning that did not assume that the system had stopped over the area and stored historical precipitation.
“When the (weather) system came across the area, it stopped,” she explained. “It was much more water, just like (what) we had experienced during the (hurricane) of Harvey … It stopped here and threw the unprecedented amount of rain that caused such a flood event.”
Only in Kerr County the Guadalupe River increased 26 feet in just 45 minutes, sweeping houses, cars and whole camps.
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Mystical devastated camp
One of the most difficult places was Camp Mystic, the Christian All-Girls camp in Hunt, Texas. Flood waters destroyed the cabins and left dozens of children missing.
On Sunday afternoon 27 girls were still found. They are looking for teams using helicopters, ships and drones continued in the fighting fields and the inverted vehicles moved away.
“I will leave your concerns back to the federal government, President Trump and do everything we can to correct those kinds of things that could feel like failing for you and your community members,” Noem told journalists.
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Growing toll and continuing rescue
The authorities warned that the danger was not over, as the other rain continued to pound the region and the lightning flood watch remained in force.
“The seekers are tirelessly working to find the survivors,” officials said on Saturday in a statement. “It’s a historical disaster and recovery will take time.”
Noem was closed by emphasizing the urgency of updating the timely warning systems to protect families.
“With this loss, we will break us and we are determined to do everything in our power to make sure it will never happen again,” she said.
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The weather service defends warnings of floods
The National Meteorological Service (NWS) advocated its reaction and said they provided predictions sufficient warning of a deadly increase.
Comments came in the middle of the growing criticism of outdated warning systems and lack of staff associated with federal cuts and early retirement under Trump’s administration.
Tom Fahy, the legislative director of the NWS employees, said CNN that while he believes that the offices had “sufficient personnel and resources”, Austin-San’s prognosis Antonio had no critical position.
“The Austin-San Antonio office is missing a meteorologist Warning-Role, which serves as a key direct connection between predictions and emergency managers,” Fahy said.
The NOAA official said CNN that these and other vacancies were the result of premature retirement to Trump’s administration to reduce the federal labor.
Meteorological Service: “Sufficient delivery time”
NOAA spokesman Kim Doster rejected the suggestions that the warnings were too late and said the meteorological service had issued a warning before the overwhelmed Guadalupe Community.
“The National Meteorological Service is broken by a tragic loss of life in Kerr County,” the range said in its statement CNN.
“July 3, the NWS office in Austin/San Antonio TX carried out a briefing forecast for emergency control in the morning and released a flood watch early in the afternoon.”
The range added that several flash flood warnings were released during the night and early hours of 4 July.
“Flea flood warnings were also released on the night of July 3 and early July, which provided preliminary delivery times more than three hours before the conditions of lightning floods occurred,” she said.
(Tagstotranslate) Texas lightning floods
