Did the US government contributing to Texas Tragey?

After the deadly Texas flood, some Democrats have warned of the “consequences” of the Trump administration to the Federal Government’s labor force, including meteorologists, and Senator Chris Murphy said: “The exact forecasting of the weather helps to avoid the deadly riots.”

The assumption is that the reduction can interfere with the capacity of the National Weather Service (NWS) – a state agency that provides weather forecasts in the US – adequately predict the floods and increase the alarm.

But the White House press -secretary Caroline Levita said on Monday: “These offices (from the Northern SZ) were well staffed … Therefore, any claim to the opposite is completely false.”

The BBC Verify considered the impact of the reduction in accordance with the President of Trump in this field, and although there was a decrease in the workforce in NWS, experts we talked to, saying that staffing Texas flood appears to be adequate.

Trump administration suggested cut 25% Prior to the current annual budget of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) $ 6.1 billion (£ 4.4 billion). Noaa is an agency controlled by NWS.

That would Entry into the financial year of 2026 Beginning in October this year – so these specific reductions would not contribute to the tragedy in Texas.

However, the NWS personnel schedule has already been reduced separately due to the efficiency of the Trump administration since January.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which previously ruled Elon Musk, proposed a voluntary dismissal known as ransom, as well as early retirement outlets for federal government workers. It also finished contracts for most of those who were in the probationary period.

As a result, about 200 people in NWS accepted a voluntary dismissal and 300 elected early retirement, according to Tom Fahi, NWS Director. Another 100 people were fired from the service, he said.

In general, NWS lost 600 4200 employees, says Mr. Fahi, resulting in several offices across the country without the required personnel schedule.

In April, Agency Associated Press He said they saw the data compiled by NWS staff showing that half of his offices had a 20% vacation level – twice as much as ten years earlier.

Despite this, the climate experts reported the BBC to make sure that last week in Texas NWS forecasts were as sufficient as you could expect.

“The forecasts and warnings are all played in the normal order. The task in this event was that it is very difficult to predict this type of extreme, localized rainfall,” says the mountains, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Rice in Texas.

And Andy Haislton, the climate, the noun, who modified the hurricane pathways for the NOAA until he was fired during the dismissal in February, says: “I do not think that the problems with the staff have taken this event directly. They received hours and warnings.”

However, some experts suggested that reducing the personnel schedule may interfere with the possibilities of local NWS offices in Texas effectively coordinate local emergency services.

“There is a real question as to whether the weather has been connected with the information about the weather in such a way that it was insufficient,” says Daniel Sven, a climatic scientist at the University of California at Los Angeles.

“The impact may be partially deprived when some people who are in the meteorological service responsible for the introduction of these communications are still busy – which they were not in some of these local offices,” he adds.

In the offices of San -Andgelo and San -antonio, covering areas affected by the flood reportedly had some existing jobs.

For example, On the San -Antonio office site, several positions are listed as vacantIncluding two meteorologists.

The NSW union director told the BBC to make sure that the San Andgelo’s office lacks a senior hydrologist, a scientist who specializes in the flood.

The office of San -Anthonio also lacked the “Prevention of the Coordination of the Meteorologist”, which coordinates the connection between the local predicted bureau and the emergency services, said Mr. Faha.

However, he noted that both offices temporarily increased their staffing schedule in anticipation of a dangerous event event, which is characteristic of these circumstances.

“In Austin/San -Antonio and San -Andgelo, Texas, Austin/San -Anthonio and San -Andgela there were additional forecasters during the catastrophic flood,” NWS secretary Eric GRIT CEI said in a BBC Verify statement. “All forecasts and warnings were issued on time,” she added.

The NWS meteorologist Jason Runien, who covers the San -Anthonio area, also said in a statement that if there were usually two weather forecasters in clear weather, they had “up to five employees”.

Asked on Sunday if government vacancies left in the Northern SZ left, President Trump told reporters: “No, they didn’t.”

In the video shared a thousand times on social mediaUS Meteorologist John Morales said: “There is a 20% reduction in balloons, launches … What we start to see is that the quality of the forecasts becomes degraded.”

Some social media users indicate Mr. Morales’ words as evidence that budget cuts have limited weather forecasters anticipate extreme weather like floods in Kerr County, Texas.

Balloons are an important tool used by meteorologists to collect data on the weather – from temperature, humidity, pressure or wind speed – from the upper atmosphere.

In the USA, Usually NWS stations run them twice a day.

In a number of public statements published since February, NWS has confirmed that it has either rejected or reduced the balloons running at least 11 places across the country, which is due to the lack of staffing in local weather forecasts.

However, there is no evidence that suggests that any of these changes that have been directly affected by the weather are launched in areas affected by floods in Texas.

Publicly available data show thatAs a result of the flood, the launches of the balloons were conducted as planned at the Del Rio, the starting station closest to the flood epicenter, collecting the data informed by the weather forecasts, which, according to experts, were as sufficient as they could.