In the wake of prominent Democrats and leftist media outlets blaming President Trump and his Big, Beautiful Bill for the massive flash floods that raged in Central Texas and appear to have caused at least dozens of deaths, weather experts chimed in to expose those claims as absolutely false and awful.
As background, flash flooding meant that the Guadalupe River rose more than 30 feet in just a couple of hours over the July 4 weekend, and as a result, over 80 individuals were confirmed dead as the weekend ended. Democrats then took to blaming a handful of layoffs at the National Weather Service as being responsible for the disaster.
Particularly, prominent media voices pushed the claim that a few efficiency-minded layoffs meant the NWS was understaffed and unable to properly help residents plan for the flooding. Amongst those who claimed as much was ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, who claimed on Saturday, July 5, that “there were significant staffing shortfalls to the National Weather Service’s offices in the region.”
That wasn’t true, as Greg Waller, service coordination hydrologist with the NWS West Gulf River Forecast Center in Fort Worth, told Politico. Waller, explaining what the situation was at the NWS when the flash flooding crisis occurred, said, “The NWS forecasting offices were operating normally at the time of the disaster.”
Adding to that, Waller explained that the staffing and technology provided to the NWS was sufficient for it to do its job, that job just wasn’t enough to prevent the disaster. He said, “We had adequate staffing. We had adequate technology.” He continued, This was us doing our job to the best of our abilities.”
Waller wasn’t the only one to explain as much. Also chiming in on the matter was Tom Fahy, the legislative director for the National Weather Service Employees Organization. Mr. Fahy told the Texas Tribune that staffing at the NWS was “adequate to issue timely forecasts and warnings before and during the emergency.”
Similarly, Ryan Maue, a very popular weatherman who has a PhD in meteorology from Florida State University, took to X to slam Stephanopoulos’s anti-Trump claims. He said, referencing them, “Grotesque misinformation. NWS in Texas had extra staff on duty and did their jobs admirably, as always.”
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In another tweet, Maue slammed the notion that the NWS was to blame, writing, “Irresponsible actors is one way to put it, but I think ‘ghouls’ is a descriptor that most people understand better. Blaming the National Weather Service or politicians for natural disasters needs to stop regardless of the party. It is lowest common denominator thinking.”
And, in still another post on the matter, Maue said, further attacking the leftists like Sen. Schumer who are attacking the NWS as a way of attacking Trump, “Democrats are leaning hard into narrative that National Weather Service in Texas botched the forecasts and warnings, leading to worse loss of life during the flood tragedy. Schumer accuses the NWS San Antonio office of ‘delays, gaps, or diminished accuracy.’ Gross.”
Still not done, he followed that up by noting that the Democrats are still pushing the NWS message to attack Trump even as it becomes more and more evident that the NWS did quite well. He said, “Inexplicable why Democrats are continuing this political narrative when they know … and everyone knows … the National Weather Service performance was exemplary. There is no evidence to the contrary.”
Watch Stephanopoulos here: