Christopher Flavelle of the New York Times is reporting that key staff positions are missing in the Texas offices of the National Weather Service due to the recent DOGE cuts, and this contributed to a lack of communication between the NWS and Texas officials.
I’ll say the obvious out loud: this lack of communication meant many victims weren’t warned in time. And although other factors contributed to the deaths, this factor is a big deal.
In Flavelle’s article “As Floods Hit, Key Roles Were Vacant at Weather Service Offices in Texas”, published a few minutes ago, he writes:
Texas officials appeared to blame the Weather Service for issuing forecasts on Wednesday that underestimated how much rain was coming. But former Weather Service officials said the forecasts were as good as could be expected.... The staffing shortages suggested a separate problem, those former officials said — the loss of experienced people who would typically have helped communicate with local authorities in the hours after flash flood warnings were issued overnight.
Flavelle lists several Weather Service positions that are vacant in that part of Texas, including meteorologist in charge, senior hydrologist, staff forecaster, science officer, and warning coordination meteorologist.
That’s right. There was no meteorologist in charge. And there was no warning coordination meteorologist to liaise with county and state officials. The warning job became vacant on April 30 because the person who held it took the early retirement package that Trump and DOGE offered to federal workers in lieu of being fired later. And the Trump administration did not hire a replacement.
