On this edition of Your Call’s One Planet series, we discuss the deadly floods in Texas.
According to NBC News, authorities have confirmed at least 120 deaths across six counties, including 60 adults and 36 children in Kerr County. There are still 173 people missing as the hope of finding locating survivors has dwindled. Search-and-rescue operations along the Guadalupe River have shifted to a recovery phase.
According to The New York Times, as of mid-May, NOAA had cut 11 percent of its workforce—800 employees were fired, and another 500 took buyouts. Nearly half of these staff reductions came from the National Weather Service, which dismissed 100 probationary employees and saw 500 others take buyouts.
In a piece in Yale Climate Connections, Dr. Jeff Masters writes that we’re pushing our luck if we think the cuts to NOAA, which oversees the weather service, won’t cause a breakdown in our ability to get people out of harm’s way in the future. In particular, the loss this year of many of the weather service’s most experienced leaders – people with decades of experience in the particular weather vulnerabilities in local areas – poses a significant danger to the mission of protecting people and property.
Guest:
Dr. Jeff Masters, former NOAA hurricane scientist and founder of Weather Underground
Resources:
Yale Climate Connections: Cuts to NOAA increase the risk of deadly weather tragedies
Texas Monthly: Downed Weather Balloons and Missing Gauges: What Went Wrong With the Central Texas Floods
The New York Times: FEMA Didn’t Answer Thousands of Calls From Flood Survivors, Documents Show
