Flash floods along Texas’ Guadalupe River have killed at least 32 people and also left around 27 people missing.
Key Facts
Texas authorities confirmed at least 32 people were dead as of Saturday afternoon, noting 14 of the deceased are children and that around 850 people have been rescued or evacuated so far.
Rescue teams are continuing to search for a group of around 27 people who were attending an all-girls Christian summer camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River.
Kerr County judge Rob Kelly provided a similar statement to Kidd’s on Friday, when he was asked why camps along the Guadalupe were not evacuated, telling reporters, “I can’t answer that, I don’t know,” before saying the county had “no reason to believe that this was going to be anything like what’s happened here.”
The NWS issued a flash flood watch Thursday afternoon that noted Kerr County, where much of the flooding began early Friday morning, was a particularly vulnerable area.
The NWS was one of several federal agencies targeted by the controversial cost-cutting efforts of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, and has recently laid off nearly 600 employees—around the same amount of staffers it lost in the 15 previous years, the Texas Tribune reported.
Forbes has reached out to the NWS for comment.How Has The Nws Been Impacted By Federal Funding Cuts?
Some NWS field offices have reported the loss of around-the-clock staffing and reductions in weather balloon launches, which are crucial in collecting data on humidity, pressure, temperature and more elements needed to produce forecasts.
