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By Anna Skinner
Associate News Editor
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A former administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said on Tuesday that some people in the path of the devastating Texas floods didn't receive urgent weather alerts because of a warning coordination meteorologist job vacancy at the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Austin/San Antonio.
A NOAA spokesperson told Newsweek in a statement that extra personnel were staffed at the NWS Austin/San Antonio and San Angelo offices during the flood and that the "NWS remains dedicated to our mission to serve the American public through our forecasts and decision support services."
Several experts have commended the NWS on its job alerting people in the impacted areas.
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The Context
Job cuts that hit NOAA and NWS this year drew renewed focus following catastrophic flooding in Texas over the weekend in which some parts of the state saw more than 20 inches of rain. More than 100 people have died, including 27 campers and counselors at Camp Mystic in Kerr County.
The reductions, carried out under the White House's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), impacted hundreds of NOAA and NWS employees, significantly raising vacancy rates at forecast offices.
In June, NWS began a hiring process to fill more than 100 vacant positions, NPR reported.
What To Know
In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, former NOAA administrator Rick Spinrad said the NWS "did their job" in regard to issuing watches, warnings and wireless emergency alerts to notify people in the path of the floods before danger arrived.
However, some people didn't receive the warnings.
"We need to understand why that last mile is where the problem was in terms of getting alerts out," Spinrad said in an interview with CNN.
Spinrad added that "one of the problematic issues" with the most recent flood was the "lack of a warning coordination meteorologist" at the Austin/San Antonio office, which he said was a critical position.
"The individual who had that position took one of the retirements that the administration had offered up a couple of months ago," Spinrad said.
In an interview with CNN earlier this week, Tom Fahy, the legislative director for the NWS employees' union, said the NWS forecast offices had "adequate staffing and resources" but confirmed that the Austin/San Antonio office was missing a warning coordination meteorologist.
Critics have raised concerns that job cuts at the NWS and NOAA left offices short-staffed and compromised forecasting coordination and emergency communication. Representative Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat, said there needed to be an inquiry into whether NWS job cuts played a role in people in the flood zone not being prepared.
However, other experts believe that the job cuts that hit NOAA earlier this year didn't disrupt NWS services at all.
Alan Gerard, former director of the analysis and understanding branch at the National Severe Storms Laboratory of the NOAA, wrote in a Substack post that "just as what I have been able to see about this event shows me the NWS did a solid job, similarly there is little evidence that any of the recent cuts to NOAA/NWS negatively impacted services for this event, regardless of what may be being said on social media."
Houston-based meteorologist Matt Lanza wrote in a Substack post that there was "absolutely nothing" to suggest that current staffing or budget issues at the NOAA or NWS played a role.
What People Are Saying
Former NOAA administrator Rick Spinrad, in an interview with CNN on Tuesday morning: "I've talked with any number of my friends in the weather service and colleagues in the commercial weather community and to a person, one of the first questions they asked was, 'Where was the WCM—the warning coordination meteorologist?' I am convinced that the staff cuts that we saw were a contributing factor to the inability of the emergency managers to respond. The staffing was just fine, and the White House has concurred with this, to get the forecast out and to get the watches and warnings issued, but when you send a message there's no guarantee it's being received. So someone needs to follow up, and that's the warning coordination meteorologist—a position that was vacant."
A NOAA spokesperson told Newsweek: "All forecasts and warnings were issued in a timely manner. Additionally, these offices were able to provide decision support services to local partners, including those in the emergency management community."
President Donald Trump told reporters, after being asked on Sunday if he thinks the government needs to hire back meteorologists whose jobs were cut: "I would think not. This was a thing that happened in seconds. Nobody expected it. Nobody saw it. Very talented people are there, they didn't see it. It's, I guess they said, once in 100 years. They've never seen anything like this."
Tom Fahy, the legislative director for the NWS employees' union, said, according to a Breitbart report: "[T]he forecasters did their job. There [are] very few times when I'll be in a position that I have to agree with the President of the United States. When he spoke last night that the forecasters at the National Weather Service offices at San Angelo and San Antonio got the forecast right, the President said they did their job, and they did."
CBS Austin meteorologist Avery Tomasco, on X, formerly Twitter: "All I'll say is this. The National Weather Service issued a flood watch for Kerr County more than 12 hours ahead of the catastrophic flood. A flash flood warning was issued for Hunt & Ingram 3 HOURS before the Guadalupe started to climb. They did their job and they did it well."
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, during a press conference: "These offices were fully staffed. The San Angelo office was fully staffed with 12 forecast meteorologists. There were no vacancies. The San Antonio office was operating with 11 forecasters and...the union themselves said there was adequate staffing, so I think those words speak for themselves, and the numbers speak for themselves. This was a once-in-a-century flash flood, a tragic natural disaster, and the administration is doing all that we can on the ground to help these families during this time of need."
What Happens Next
Debate about DOGE job cuts at NOAA and NWS will likely continues. Meanwhile, flood warnings have expired for most of Texas.
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