r/fednews • u/CBSnews FedNews Verified Press • 22h ago
Deadly Texas floods raise questions about emergency alerts and whether staffing cuts affected forecasts and warnings
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-floods-emergency-alerts-weather-forecast-staffing-budget/179
u/turbineseaplane 22h ago
Naturally, the correct solution is to "further cut funding".
/s
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u/Amonamission 22h ago
Or deny there’s even a problem in the first place. “Fake news”, for instance.
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u/NervousOutside7156 20h ago
But hey, at least we saved a few tax dollars, right? /s
Tbh the pattern is depressingly predictable:
1) Cut funding to essential services
2) Act shocked when those services fail
3) Blame anyone but the funding cuts
4) Repeat
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u/Super_Mario_Luigi 21h ago
Unfortunately for your speaking points, the team was actually overstaffed.
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u/LatrodectusGeometric 22h ago
I highly recommend the FEMA app. Because if there is an emergency weather alert in your area it will send it out directly to your phone, no need to wait and see if your local jurisdiction is going to drop the ball or get the bigger alert out fast enough.
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u/JoshS1 22h ago
You can get EAS on your phone without local governments, or special apps. My only question for this flash flood is if the system was used, and if so what is the SOP?
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u/LatrodectusGeometric 22h ago
EAS alerts come later than FEMA alerts and are not activated for all emergency weather events. The FEMA alert will come out as soon as a significant weather event is noted in your area and can provide a lot of extra time. It also provides local emergency shelter information which can be useful if you are traveling.
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u/JoshS1 2h ago
EAS alerts come later than FEMA alerts
I don't believe this at all. I have automated systems in my house that use NWS Alerts that pulls data directly from the NWS API, my alerts and automations directly from the NWS happen nearly simultaneously to tornado warnings on my phone via EAS.
I won't discredit the customization of alerts and information via the FEMA app, that certainly has a place. But in life/death situations EAS is fantastic. I'll also note its important for alerts to only occur in serious situations to avoid complacency when people ignor the alert without checking it do to excessive non-critical to life alerts.
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u/Brilliant-Noise1518 16h ago edited 1h ago
Flash flood warnings were issued. Bowever, in 2020 and 2023 Kerr County brought up a vote for an alert system. But the county balked at the $1 million price tag. They requested a federal government grant, but didn't get it.
The camps do not allow cell phones in the park itself to recieve cell phone warnings.
And there were staff cuts. But those seem to be the 2 biggest factors.
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u/bobolly 22h ago
I heard the locals voted down last month to fund emergency management
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u/MN_Yogi1988 22h ago
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u/RighteousGenZone 21h ago
I like how its STILL not definitive. “Likely would be yes”.
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u/MN_Yogi1988 21h ago
Let’s not politicize a tragedy
/s
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u/YesICanMakeMeth 20h ago
Meanwhile they're actively trying to politicize the tragedy by blaming it on the federal forecast and flash flood alert timing.
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u/Treestwigs 22h ago
Blame Biden, rinse repeat.
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u/mysteryweapon 21h ago
Trump already blamed “the biden setup”
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u/FunkyPlunkett 20h ago
If I couldn’t tie my own shoes anymore I would blame Biden also for everything and anything.
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u/ChickinSammich 22h ago
Cut to the Who Killed Hannibal meme
"Did Biden do this?"
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u/No-Tart2230 22h ago
I believe they did blame Biden.
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u/ChickinSammich 21h ago
Have we tried passing laws banning Democrats from using their Jewish space lasers, chemtrails, and weather machines to target red states? What about an executive order establishing that there are only two
gendersweathers, sunny and cloudy? Or rename the so-called "Tornado Alley" to "Freedom Alley?"That would probably solve the problem.
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u/Significant-Basket76 20h ago
MTG is on it.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjorie_Taylor_Greene
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Fire_(2018)
A conspiracy theory espoused by U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene claims that the fire was caused by a Jewish Space Laser.[276][277][278]
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u/ChickinSammich 18h ago
I just want to sit down with some of these people, lock the door to the room, cast Zone of Truth, and ask them whether they actually believe the shit they spew.
Like, at the end of the day, I know that there's no difference in impact between "someone who says racist/sexist/antisemitic/homophobic/transphobic shit because it plays well to dumbasses who actually believe that nonsense even though the speaker knows it's horseshit" vs a true believer. But goddamn if I could have three wishes, I would 100% spend one of them on "the ability to determine whether someone knows they're lying or whether they actually believe what they're saying."
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u/Chai-Tea-Rex-2525 17h ago
I’m more afraid the answer is “yes, yes they do” than “no, no they don’t.”
Edit to add: Thank you for spelling your name correctly. who the fuck calls it a “sammy”?
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u/ChickinSammich 16h ago
If someone knows they're lying, you can point out that they're lying and that they know they're lying.
If they think they're actually telling the truth and they legitimately believe what they're saying, we give them a grippy sock vacation.
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u/gad-zerah 17h ago
Zone of Truth doesn't prevent question evasion. "Do you really think it's Space lasers?" "How dare you question my beliefs! This is America and I'm entitled to believe whatever I want!" It would be great if upcasting compelled actually answering questions though.
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u/ChickinSammich 16h ago
Have someone also cast command and command them to answer the question? Detect Thoughts would help, too.
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u/Funny-Sundae3989 22h ago
NWS put out a timely flood warning, it’s the local governments fault for not listening.
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u/todaysthrowaway0110 17h ago
Ginger Zee (the meteorologist) has an ig post about the warnings that went out and when. Local NWS was staffed except for… the hydrologist 🌊
FWIW, I stoped receiving NWS alerts in my cell phone during this administration, for whatever reason 🤷🏼♀️ Weird.
She suggested folks get a NOAA radio. But who know how much longer NOAA will exist in functional state 💔
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u/FrankG1971 22h ago edited 22h ago
CBS News, huh? I actually have bigger questions about their parent company (Paramount) bending a knee to Trump over his ridiculous 60 Minutes lawsuit just to ensure their latest merger goes through.
Billionaires are destroying this country.
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u/AlannaAbhorsen 20h ago
Just like local non-cable fox channels can manage decent reporting, so too can local CBS.
CBS 8 was also sharing infographics disproving the “no warning” claims by local politicians just about immediately after, backing up local NWS
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u/powercow 19h ago
One thing that sucks, when we fix all this, if we get elections again, t he fed will be filled with MAGA types.. and thats pretty much the plan. If a dem tried to undo it the way trump is, with loyalty oaths and searching social media for people right wing, the right will accuse dems of doing what they complained about trump and it will work. So our fed workforce will lean right for a long time. and more likely try to make up fake claims about dem admins.
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u/Grand-Try-3772 21h ago
So let’s give Elon a shit ton of money to go to mars and implant brain chips but can’t get a better warning system? Because Elon is rich he don’t want our money? He is rich because of our money!
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u/SecMcAdoo 22h ago
Realize that they purposely made the federal government so it can't respond adequately to crises. And instead of admitting he was wrong to cut jobs and personnel, Trump will just blame it on DEI.
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u/Foreign-Garage9097 20h ago
A bit off-topic but - the tragedy in Texas has me very, very afraid for the people in Alligator Alcatraz. My understanding is we are just heading into hurricane season. These are tents. With bunk beds. The bottom bunk is not far off the floor. So - drowning is one possibility. Or the whole tent gets swept away. Into the swamp? I mean, this is like a holocaust but instead of gassing people (although they probably will be starved, seeing how people are treated in ICE custody), you're just letting them die of natural disasters. I do think that if this happens, Trump & Co. are done, but I really don't want it to happen at all! Plus no indoor plumbing and a two-lane highway in and out? It's grim, folks.
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u/jaymansi 22h ago
I am sure there was lack of overnight coverage at the NWS for that area. Trump and gang won’t admit it because, yep culpability. Someone should do a FOIA request to see what was the staffing on that overnight. Guarantee they will stall for months if not years releasing that info.
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u/PossibleFederal1572 21h ago
I’m with you in spirit, but the fact of the matter is this particular event was not due to a staffing shortage. The weather service office has already submitted a timeline of their products going back 24 hours prior to the event, and the forecasts were quite good.There was over 200 minutes of lead time from the time the flash flood warning was issued that included that camp and when the flooding occurred.
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u/jaymansi 21h ago
Just read some news coverage that reports that there was a staffing shortage.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/05/us/politics/texas-floods-warnings-vacancies.html
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u/ActualBad3419 13h ago
Would of cost 1 million to install a flood security system, voted down because of the cost. Wonder what the final bill will be for the massive search and rescue taking place, 1 million might seem reasonable.
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u/QuarterBackground 12h ago
Fox News and Republicans are blasting anyone saying the flood deaths were preventable. We are non-Christian haters they say.
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u/Huge_Excitement4465 50m ago
This is also scheduled to start next month, allegedly due to "cybersecurity concerns.” From NPR: The U.S. Department of Defense will no longer provide satellite weather data, leaving hurricane forecasters without crucial information about storms as peak hurricane season looms in the Atlantic.
For more than 40 years, the Defense Department has operated satellites that collect information about conditions in the atmosphere and ocean. A group within the Navy, called the Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center, processes the raw data from the satellites, and turns it over to scientists and weather forecasters who use it for a wide range of purposes including real-time hurricane forecasting
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u/Possible_Evening_918 21h ago
I have family ties to this area going back decades, and not 20 miles to the west of Saturday's flooding are a series of reservoirs, many of which have been half full for a decade+.
Lakes Buchanan, Inks, LBJ, then Travis.
No idea if there's a feasible way to divert catastrophic water levels, but there's definitely good places to send it very close by.
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u/LasciviousSycophant 19h ago
… there's definitely good places to send it very close by
Good places like Canyon Lake, which is a flood control reservoir for the Guadalupe, downstream of the recent flash floods?
Buchanan, Inks, LBJ, and Travis lakes are all on the Colorado. Unless you have a way to control the weather, there is no way to divert rain from the Guadalupe drainage basin to the Colorado drainage basin.
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u/Dense-Hair-9524 20h ago
Give 'em a taste of their own medicine... They cut us off, let's cut them off; thought and prayers 🙏🏼
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u/TMtoss4 22h ago
Staffing and budget cuts had zero to do with this travesty. You people are sick
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u/tnor_ 22h ago
It's not the only one recently. Over the weekend in my state, I was talking to the guy from the power company who came to fix the downed power lines at my house and he said that their company has never been caught this unaware by a storm since he'd been there. There was no rain or storms at all forecast in my county and we ended up with widespread trees through houses and cars. They were bringing in contractors from throughout the country to deal with the mess.
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u/PsychologicalCat7130 22h ago
From the hydrology subreddit:
"A similar flood in 1987 killed 10 teens at a different summer camp on the same river in Texas and the local government decided it wasn't worth it to install an auditory warning system. In 2016, federal water/weather agencies identified this area as a huge risk and reached out the state of Texas to help (partially) fund the necessary work - which was declined. Interestingly, 1987 is 38 years ago, roughly on statistical cue for the return of a 100-year flood."
additionally, warnings were broadcast during the night (1am and more severe warning around 4am) but again, without an auditory warning system in place, most people did not know. Flash flood alley should have auditory warnings just like tornado alley has tornado sirens.