The flash flood in central Texas is a terrible tragedy. The fact that so many of the victims are young girls adds to the heartbreak. In Texas, they are still searching for bodies and, one hopes, survivors, but the Democrats are already trying to make political hay.
Texas Democratic Rep. Julian Castro seized on the opportunity of the disaster to score political points at the GOP president’s expense, insisting “Trump’s cuts to the National Weather service should be investigated.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) echoed his colleague’s sentiment, demanding an investigation into whether “staffing shortages” at the agency resulted in a higher death toll in a letter to Acting Inspector General Roderick Anderson.
These responses are beneath contempt. They would be beneath contempt even if there had been cuts to the National Weather Service budget, but there haven’t been. They just made it up.
In fact, the National Weather Service tracked the rainstorm that caused the flooding, and provided ample warning. Cliff Mass lays out the facts:
The flooding occurred around 4 AM on July 4.
A heavy precipitation event was forecast for the region during the previous days. For example, the NOAA/NWS HRRR forecast from 8 PM July 3 (the evening before) predicted a band of heavy rain over central Texas.
THE DAY BEFORE, the NWS Forecast Office in San Antonia put out a flood watch for central Texas Hill Country, which included the site of the tragedy.
During the subsequent hours, the National Weather Service communicated increasingly strong warnings, including flash flood warnings. A children’s camp on a floodplain should have been evacuated.
Here is the warning by the local NWS office several hours before the flood.
Also consider the warning by the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center (WPC) before the event:
As the event got closer, with National Weather Service radar showing the event unfolding, the San Antonia office made the threat explicit, noting a very dangerous flash event.
Any media or other organization suggesting that the National Weather Service was not on top of this event is not only not telling the truth, but doing a deep disservice to the highly professional and skillful folks in that organization.
Some folks are making such suggestions for patently political reasons. Extraordinarily unethical and wrong.
I don’t know whether local authorities or private citizens like the operators of Camp Mystic are blameworthy. There will be plenty of time to sort that out. But of course, the despicable Chuck Schumer doesn’t care about that. He just wants to smear President Trump, even if the grounds for his smear are laughable. He knows that the millions of fanatical Democrats who have been trained to respond hysterically to any anti-Trump allegation won’t know the difference. They will turn out for the midterms, which is all that he and other leaders of the Democratic Party care about.
However much you despise them, you don’t despise them enough.
