Thanks for this info and perspective. I was one who was horrified that we would shift money from the true mission of FEMA to concentration camps. And also freaked out that we have cut back staffing at NOAA. Could full staffing at those weather centers have helped warn sooner and more thoroughly? Can we learn how to do better?
Not sure. No clear evidence yet. I really appreciate the education from your post today.
As a Californian who lived in the Austin area for 6 years, I remember laughing at the giant deep culverts beside every rural main road. Until it rained. And it rains HARD in the south like nothing I have ever seen elsewhere! Once I was celebrating an event in Austin, weather predictions expected a storm that would drop over 20" of rain an hour. Note that the weather forecast in Austin was amazingly accurate compared to where I lived in California and I often talked about it. My house, 26 miles north and where my kids were, got 29" of rain in an hour while I got not even a downpour. Massive destruction along the rivers that had been barely a trickle in June. But those areas were warned and campgrounds and trailer parks were evacuated and lives saved. I read that there was not even a warning. That is the problem. Probably those at the camp would have ignored it because of past experience, but some lives would have been saved. We need the services we rely on to be as accurate as possible. Which means that we need qualified people running and staffing them. This is a bad experiment.
I get frequent warnings on my cell phone of severe weather. 95% of the time it hits close to me but not my neighborhood. We have good flood maps in Houston that show the places that flood repeatedly. Thank God I didn't buy a house in the flood zone. Obviously, I'm in favor of full staffing for the NWS and NOAA.
I looked up the history of these floods and what I found was that the flooding was even worse in 1932. So thanks for this article. It's always tempting to blame human agency but this is a natural catastrophe.
I lived in Texas during my elementary school years. One year our Girl Scout troop was in a set of cabins which were hit by floodwaters. I had mumps and been taken out of the camp earlier that week. I’m a Florida native so I agree with the need for NOAA forecast data for hurricane & dangerous weather data and warnings.
Hi, watching Meidas Touch last night from here in Western Australia, the report was televising a meeting of the Emergency Crew talking to the press, they stated that the weather report they received was for water levels between 6 to 9 inches, not the 29 feet they experienced.They are blaming the cuts to finance and staff for the misinformation received.
Peter Moore wrote “The Weather Experiment: The Pioneers Who Sought to See the Future” about the crazy idea that humans could predict the weather. We keep getting better at predicting weather and communicating it to the impact areas. It’s unfortunate that our systems improve the most when people die but we need to hold the systems accountable and have a clear, data based accounting to know what went wrong and how to improve.
The Japanese stone approach to document and communicate to the area the risk is a great system because it’s durable and simple.
Thanks for this info and perspective. I was one who was horrified that we would shift money from the true mission of FEMA to concentration camps. And also freaked out that we have cut back staffing at NOAA. Could full staffing at those weather centers have helped warn sooner and more thoroughly? Can we learn how to do better?
Not sure. No clear evidence yet. I really appreciate the education from your post today.
As a Californian who lived in the Austin area for 6 years, I remember laughing at the giant deep culverts beside every rural main road. Until it rained. And it rains HARD in the south like nothing I have ever seen elsewhere! Once I was celebrating an event in Austin, weather predictions expected a storm that would drop over 20" of rain an hour. Note that the weather forecast in Austin was amazingly accurate compared to where I lived in California and I often talked about it. My house, 26 miles north and where my kids were, got 29" of rain in an hour while I got not even a downpour. Massive destruction along the rivers that had been barely a trickle in June. But those areas were warned and campgrounds and trailer parks were evacuated and lives saved. I read that there was not even a warning. That is the problem. Probably those at the camp would have ignored it because of past experience, but some lives would have been saved. We need the services we rely on to be as accurate as possible. Which means that we need qualified people running and staffing them. This is a bad experiment.
I get frequent warnings on my cell phone of severe weather. 95% of the time it hits close to me but not my neighborhood. We have good flood maps in Houston that show the places that flood repeatedly. Thank God I didn't buy a house in the flood zone. Obviously, I'm in favor of full staffing for the NWS and NOAA.
I looked up the history of these floods and what I found was that the flooding was even worse in 1932. So thanks for this article. It's always tempting to blame human agency but this is a natural catastrophe.
Of course, the Girls camp wasn't there in 1932.
I lived in Texas during my elementary school years. One year our Girl Scout troop was in a set of cabins which were hit by floodwaters. I had mumps and been taken out of the camp earlier that week. I’m a Florida native so I agree with the need for NOAA forecast data for hurricane & dangerous weather data and warnings.
Thx for letting us know about this horrific flood. I read the entire WaPo piece. My heart breaks for all the parents.
I did wonder if the Trump cuts at the national weather bureau contributed. I did a little searching and didn't see anything. Thx for the facts.
First timer here, good post.
New Yorkers may have no clue about Texas weather, but on the whole they like FEMA. Texans not so much. One more of a thousand ironies.
I live in a blue city in Texas, and we love FEMA. Of course, we wish it was a little more efficient.
Hi, watching Meidas Touch last night from here in Western Australia, the report was televising a meeting of the Emergency Crew talking to the press, they stated that the weather report they received was for water levels between 6 to 9 inches, not the 29 feet they experienced.They are blaming the cuts to finance and staff for the misinformation received.
Peter Moore wrote “The Weather Experiment: The Pioneers Who Sought to See the Future” about the crazy idea that humans could predict the weather. We keep getting better at predicting weather and communicating it to the impact areas. It’s unfortunate that our systems improve the most when people die but we need to hold the systems accountable and have a clear, data based accounting to know what went wrong and how to improve.
The Japanese stone approach to document and communicate to the area the risk is a great system because it’s durable and simple.