Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) is demanding that the Commerce Department’s inspector general investigate vacancies at National Weather Service offices and whether they increased the death toll in recent flash flooding in Texas.
Schumer wrote in a Monday letter to Roderick Anderson, the Commerce Department’s acting inspector general, urging him to immediately “open an investigation into the scope, breadth, and ramifications of whether staffing shortages at key local National Weather Service (NWS) stations contributed to the catastrophic loss of life and property during the deadly flooding.”
He noted that The New York Times reported that key forecasting and coordination positions at the San Antonio and San Angelo offices of the NWS were vacant at the time of the Friday storm.
Those local offices were missing a warning coordination meteorologist, a science officer and a senior hydrologist, among other “vital forecasting, meteorology and coordination roles.”
“These are the experts responsible for modeling storm impacts, monitoring rising water levels, issuing flood warnings, and coordinating directly with local emergency managers about when to warn the public and issue evacuation orders,” Schumer wrote.
“To put it plainly: they help save lives,” he added.
Schumer is asking for the Commerce Department to investigate whether the staffing vacancies at the San Antonio and San Angelo offices contributed to delays, gaps or diminished accuracy of the forecasts related to the July 4 flooding.
He wants to know whether those vacancies delayed or weakened the issuance of flood warnings.
And he wants information on whether reduced staffing impeded the weather service’s ability to coordinate with local emergency officials, including in Kerr County, where floodwaters swept through an all-girls Christian summer camp, killing at least 27 campers and counselors.
“This is a national tragedy which people across the country are mourning. The American people deserve answers,” he wrote.
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) raised similar questions during an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday, calling for an investigation into what impact weather service staffing cuts had on the local preparation for the floods.
“When you have flash flooding, there’s a risk that you won’t have the personnel to make that — do that analysis, do the predictions in the best way,” he said.
“And it could lead to tragedy. So, I don’t want to sit here and say conclusively that that was the case, but I do think that it should be investigated,” he said.
