Sad Texas indicates angry in a lively fingers on national weather service, which had only five people in service before they hit the deadly floods.

After heavy rains and sudden floods On Friday in Texas Hill ControlThe weather service was criticized by local officials who criticized what they described as insufficient predictions, although most of them in the country controlled by Republicans did not reach a blame for Trump discounts. Meanwhile, Democrats were lost only a little time to link disaster staff discounts, which are blamed for at least 80 people, including more than twenty girls and advisers attending a summer camp on the banks of the Guadalpe River.

The NWS office responsible for that region had five employees in the service, as thunderstorms in Texas formed Thursday evening, and the usual number to turn overnight when he expected harsh weather. The current and former NWS officials defended the agency, noting urgent warnings of floods in the pre -dawn hours before the river rose.

“This was an exceptional service to go out first with a catastrophic warning and this indicates awareness of meteorologists at the NWS office,” said Brian Lamar, who retired at the end of April as a meteorological specialist at the NWS prediction office in Tampa, Florida. “There is always the challenge of identifying severe values, however, the fact that the catastrophic warning first showed the level of urgency.”

Staying questions about the level of coordination

However, questions about the level of coordination and communication between NWS and local officials remain on the disaster night. Trump’s administration has Cut hundreds of jobs in NWSwith Employment at least 20 % In approximately half of the 122 NWS field offices at the national level, at least half of the decorations are no longer working 24 hours a day. Hundreds of experienced fans and senior managers have been encouraged to retire early.

The White House also suggested reducing its 27 % budget and eliminating federal research centers that focus on studying weather, climate and oceans in the world.

Web site for NWS office for Austin/San AntonioThat covers the area of ​​CARE steel, shows six of 27 jobs listed as vacant. Vacancies include a major manager responsible for issuing warnings and coordination with local emergency management officials. The online CV showed the employee who held the last job that he left in April more than 17 years later, shortly after sending group emails to the employees who urge them to retire or face potential demobilization operations.

Democrats on Monday pressed the Trump administration to get details about the discounts. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer demanded the administration An investigation procedure In whether the shortage of employment contributed to the “catastrophic loss of lives” in Texas.

Meanwhile, Trump said that disposal of jobs had not hindered any weather. On Sunday, the raging water was “something that happened in seconds. No one expected it. No one saw it.”

Former officials warn that job cuts may hinder expectations in the future

The former Federal officials and experts said that Trump’s random jobs in NWS and other weather agencies will lead to brain migration that exposes the federal government’s ability to issue accurate and accurate predictions in time. Such predictions can save lives, especially for those in the way of rapid storms.

“This position reaches the point where something can be broken,” said Louis Oxielini, meteorological specialist who worked as NWS director under three presidents, including during Trump’s first term. “People are tired, working all night, then being there during the day because the next shift is short employees. Anything like this can create a position in which important elements are missed from predictions and warnings.”

After returning to his post in January, Trump issued a A series of executive orders Enabling the Ministry of Governmental efficiency, led at the beginning by Mega-Billionaire Elon Musk, to Activation of overwhelming employee discounts The abolition of contracts in federal agencies, bypassing great supervision in Congress.

Although Musk has left Washington now and He had very publicly with TrumpDuwaij employees who rented, and the discounts that he sought greatly remained, raising the lives of tens of thousands of federal employees. The result of the Republican effort to privatize the duties of weather agencies

The discounts follow a ten -year Republican effort to dismantle and privatize many duties of the National Department of Oceanic and Atmospheric, which is the agency within the Ministry of Commerce that includes NWS. The discounts came at a time when Trump handed over the best general positions of officials with relationships with private companies that profit from the tension of the system funded by the taxpayer to predict weather.

Project 2025, Governor Holding the scheme Trump is based on himself during the 2024 campaign, but he has moved widely once in office, calling for the dismantling of NOAA and the increase in weather service.

The lack of chronic employment has caused a handful of offices to reduce the frequency of regional expectations The release of the weather balloon You need to collect air data. In April, weather service It ended suddenly From its expectations and emergency alerts to languages ​​other than English, including Spanish. The service was soon Repeat After the general screaming.

The NOAA major satellite operations center appeared shortly earlier this year on the surplus list of government real estate to be sold. Trump’s proposed budget also seeks to close the main facilities for climate change tracking. Suggested cuts include the observatory over the Mona Lua volcano in Hawaii that over decades have been documented in the basic height in the crowded carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of the Earth of the burning fossil fuel.

On June 25, Nawa suddenly announced The US Department of Defense is no longer the process of processing or transferring data from three experts from the weather Decisive to predict carefully with the path and strength of hurricanes in the sea.

“Removing data from the defensive satellite is similar to removing another piece to the public safety puzzle to predict the density of the hurricane,” said Lamar, now a private adviser. “The higher the pieces, the more clear the image that can reduce the quality of life -saving warnings.”

Trump officials say they had not shot meteorology experts

In a pair of hearings in Congress last month, Trade Minister Howard Lootnick described it as “fake news” that the Trump administration has emptied any meteorological experts, though this Detailed reports from Associated Press And other media organizations that recorded the demobilization of workers.

“We are fully penetrated into predictors and scholars,” Lottennik said on June 4 before a sub -committee in the Senate. “Under any circumstances, I will leave public safety or general prediction.”

Despite the wide freezing of Trump’s federal recruitment, NOAA announced last month that it would seek to fill more than 100 The important important field positions, “ As well as connecting holes in some regional weather offices by resetting employees. These positions have not yet been publicly published, although a NOAA spokesman said on Sunday they will be soon.

In response to a question by AP how NWS could be simultaneously at one time, and Cristin Echmer, a spokeswoman for trade, said, “The National Hurricane Center works fully to meet the demand this season, and any employment efforts that simply aim to deepen our talent group.”

“The secretary is obliged to provide Americans with the most accurate and modern weather data by ensuring that the national weather service is fully equipped with the employees and technology he needs,” Echmer said. “For the first time, we merge the most accurate and graceful technology ever to achieve this goal, and with it NWS is preparing to provide critical weather information to the Americans.”

UCCELENI and the four NWS managers who served under Democratic and Republican presidents have criticized Trump’s discounts in an open letter issued in May; They said that the actions of the administration led to the departure of about 550 employees – with a total reduction of more than 10 percent.

“NWS employees will have an impossible task to continue the current level of services,” they wrote. “Our worst nightmare is that the weather forecasting offices will be subject to an unnecessary loss of life. We know that this is a nightmare shared by those in the expected front lines – and people who depend on their efforts.”

The NOAA budget for the fiscal year was 2024 just less than 6.4 billion dollars, of which less than 1.4 billion dollars went to NWS.

Experts worry about hurricane expectations

While experts say that Trump will be illegal to eliminate the NOAA without the approval of Congress, some former federal officials are concerned that the cuts may lead to a patchy system where taxpayers funded satellite operation and data collection in the atmosphere, but they leave to pay special services that will issue harsh weather forecasts and warnings. Critics say this arrangement can lead to delay or emergency alerts that may in turn may lead to avoiding deaths.

James Baker, who served as the director of NOAA during the Clinton administration, asked whether private prediction companies would provide the public that do not make profits.

“Do they care about serving small societies in Maine, let’s say?” Baker asked. “Is there a commercial model that gets data for all citizens who need them? Will companies take charge of legal risks, exchange information with disaster management agencies, and responsibility because government agencies are simply cutting noaa without specifying how to provide expectations is dangerous.”

Although the National Center for Supporters in Miami has greatly succeeded in employee discounts such as those in NWS regional offices, some professionals who depend on federal expectations and data received the beginning of the tropical weather season with deep concern.

In an extraordinary broadcast on June 3, long television meteorologist in South Florida John Morales Viewer The Trump administration’s discounts means that it may not be able to provide accurate predictions of hurricanes as it was in the past years. He pointed to the lack of employment between 20 % and 40 % in NWS offices from Tampa to Ki West and urged his fans in NBC 6 in the Greater Miami to summon their representatives in Congress.

“What we started to see is that the quality of expectations is decomposing,” said Morales. “We may not know exactly the strength of a hurricane before it reaches the coast.”