Ex-weather bosses sent haunting letter warning Trump cuts could lead to deaths weeks before flood

[Kid Berwyn]

Ex-weather bosses sent haunting letter warning Trump cuts could lead to deaths weeks before flood

by Jack Hobbs
Irish Star, July 6, 2025

In the weeks leading up to the devastating floods in Texas, five former directors of the National Weather Service sent a letter to U.S. President Donald Trump warning that continued cuts to the budget would result in the deaths of people.

The five former directors wrote the letter in May. "The proposed budget for fiscal year 2026, just released by the White House, cuts the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) by close to 30%" they wrote.

"While details aren't yet available if earlier indications hold true, this budget would essentially eliminate NOAA's research functions for weather, slash funding for next-generation satellite procurement, wrote the letter in May observations," it added. "Even if the National Weather Service remains level funded, given the interconnectedness of all of the parts of NOAA, weather forecasting will also have impacts. We cannot let this happen."

"NOAA's satellites provide vital information about the formation and pathways of storms. NOAA research on severe storms has paved the way for tools we now use every day, such as Doppler radar and storm modeling advancements," it continued. "NOAA Corps pilots fly into hurricanes to bring us real-time information on these increasingly severe storms. And data from ocean buoys adds breadth and depth to our understanding of the interaction between the atmosphere and the sea."

"These proposed cuts come just days after approximately 300 National Weather Service (NWS)employees left the public service to which they had devoted their lives and careers," continued the statement. "That's on top of the approximately 250 NWS employees who were fired due to their probationary status in new, often higher-level positions, or took the initial buyout offered by the Trump Administration in early February."

Continues...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/ex-weather-bosses-sent-haunting-letter-warning-trump-cuts-could-lead-to-deaths-weeks-before-flood/ar-AA1I32Pu?ocid=winp2fptaskbarhover&cvid=8f5f547cb1b24a329c277e8e5dbed907&ei=24

[AllaN01Bear]

1. hem. trump dosent give a hoot hoot hoot.

[Kid Berwyn]

2. "Shocking!"

From The Irish Star:

During Trump's 167 days in office, he has spent 38 days on the golf course, which is the equivalent of 22.75% of his time in charge of the country, according to Trump Golf Track.

[Grim Chieftain]

14. Maybe it's best he's out of the Oval Office where he could create more mayhem

What a total disgrace he is on so many, many levels. I cannot believe this is our country.

[debm55]

30. I agree.

[democratsruletheday]

3. irony is that....

most of the maga red areas of this country are prone to the biggest natural disasters: the south and the plains states in particular. Just another case of really ignorant, uninformed voters screwing themselves to no end. So I WANT to feel empathy for most of them but can't. I feel sick to my stomach for every single dead girl in Texas because it was preventable. It absolutely didn't have to happen. Lots of their parents voted for this gaggle of dipshits that cut all those NWS and NOAA jobs. Tragically, it close all those girls their lives. As I said: didn't need to be that way.

[Kid Berwyn]

4. Absolutely preventable. And the news media let the nation down again...

Otherwise, all the people in red states and blue would know before the election that Trump sold himself directly to Big Oil, offering all they wanted in exchange for a one-time contribution of one billion dollars.

https://democraticunderground.com/100218953590

[malaise]

5. Ding ding 🛎️ and which is why she reached there so quickly despite

having run from her own floods last year

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220462290

[Kid Berwyn]

7. Tragedy and Disaster as Photo Opportunity

Mission Accomplished.

[BoRaGard]

6. Krasnov (R-felon) is too arrogant to listen to knowledgeable people

which is why he surrounds himself with low-grade, brown-nosing G.O.P. flunkies.

Tragic

[Kid Berwyn]

9. Gen. George S. Patton detested the type.

One of "Patton's Principles"...

"If everyone is thinking alike, no one is thinking."

Not that King Taco ever learned more about the guy than what was in the movie.

[Ping Tung]

8. It's inspiring to see a long time married couple agree on th course to take.

.webp

[Kid Berwyn]

10. King Taco and Queen Melanie really love Texas

Here they are at a photo op in El Paso.



In the photo above, the lowest couple uses a newborn who's just been orphaned when his parents were gunned down by a white supremacist at a Walmart.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

16. I wish the shooter had aimed for the thumb.

[Kid Berwyn]

18. We still have yet to learn exactly what occurred.

Trump was covered in blood, yet his only injuries were from "shrapnel" per former-FBI Director Christopher Wray.

https://thehill.com/homenews/4795251-trump-fbi-shrapnel-bullet/

What was telling about King Taco's state of "mind" is that he would use the murdered spectator as a prop.

“So they’re going to get millions of dollars but the woman, the wife, this beautiful woman, I handed her the check—we handed her the check—and she said, ‘This is so nice, and I appreciate it, but I’d much rather have my husband.’ Now I know some of the women in this room wouldn’t say the same,” Trump reportedly said. “At least four couples here would have been thrilled, actually.”

Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-made-crass-jokes-death-161131641.html

[bronxiteforever]

11. Kick. Thank you for posting this.

[Kid Berwyn]

12. You are welcome, my Friend. It is heartbreaking.

Seeing how the national "news media" are in bed with King Taco, DU is where the truth can be found and shared .

[Kid Berwyn]

15. The cuts went into effect in February, 2025.

From Feb. 28, 2025:

Hundreds of federal NOAA employees, including weather forecasters, were fired Thursday as part of DOGE cuts.

DeSantis said Friday he’s a "big supporter" of the DOGE effort, which is behind these cuts, and also applauded the work of NOAA forecasters during Helene and Milton.

These cuts represent about 10% of NOAA’s workforce and include about 375 probationary NWS employees.

https://www.fox13news.com/news/hundreds-federal-noaa-employees-including-weather-forecasters-fired-doge-cuts

Sorry if it makes "our side not look great."

[Cha]

19. It Doesn't "make Our Side Look bad".. the poster

is wrong.

[The_REAL_Ecumenist]

21. WTAF? Are you high? What rock were have you been under and WHO RAISED YOU?

Are you actually saying that Americans, which include the democrats, are "MAKING OUR SIDE LOOK BAD" because we're pointing out the FACT that DOZENS of our FELLOW AMERICANS have DIED because the Apricot Hellbeast cut lifesaving services because he felt HE COULD? WTF is wrong with you? That "THANG" is LITERALLY killing Americans for ratings and you have the nerve to post the most asinine comment I have EVER read...Wow, just wow.

[Cha]

22. Thanks.. I wanted to say something to that

poster, too.. but you said it so well.

[The_REAL_Ecumenist]

31. Gurl, I wanted to say more but I didn't want to get in trouble. I don't understand why ANYONE would say what that

poster did UNLESS, they're an undercover brother, so to speak. I don't understand why they would post such a BS laden comment when all of us are old enough to remember when a demented, citrus toned, 34X convicted creep with a dead urine colored ferret stapled to his dome, (Po' ferret) started out thrashing the govt he is supposed to lead. His ILLEGAL S.A. ALIEN was given the keys to the kingdom and took his dickless doge boys to slash and burn through ESSENTIAL svcs & the preventable deaths have ONLY begun. What in the DEEP FRIED SNICKER is going on? How hard is it to understand that these "people" who are cruel, hateful, sadistic, psychopathic lunatics are getting their creepy jollies from the suffering of anyone who isn't LILY WHITE, "CHRISTIAN", EUROPEAN, & BREATHTAKINGLY WEALTHY? They're proud of the horrific treatment & torture they're visiting on the kidnap victims who are unfortunate enough to be snatched up by J6 thugs. How the hell does it damage OUR message by pointing out what is right before our eyes? GTFOH... Oh and thanks for the complement...

[flashman13]

29. Right on! There is no more normal - ever. We are being third worldized. They are going to kill a lot of us.

BTW We are also being pauperize so that we will be willing to replace deported workers at any price just to stay alive.

This criminal incompetence needs to be hung around Trump's neck 24/7. It must be stopped.

If you want to remember those lost lives, your best course is to oppose Trump and the MAGTs at every opportunity so that no other families and their children are needlessly lost.

[The_REAL_Ecumenist]

32. PREACH, Flashman13!! That post was the most asinine comment I have EVAH read on DU...WHAT THE ACTUAL F*CK is

wrong with people?

[Cha]

17. Do they know by now Traitor

doesn't give a shit.? he works for Putin Not the American People?

TY

[Kid Berwyn]

20. "Successful people have successful friends."

From one of big money's biggest fans:

“A significant portion of my practice on the partner side is with senior government lawyers, ranging from U.S. attorneys, cabinet officials, former senators, chairmen of federal commissions, general counsel of federal commissions, and then senior political appointees within the ranks of various agencies, and I -- they come to me looking to transition to the private sector,” Roberts said, according to a transcript of a 2015 arbitration hearing related to her former colleague’s termination.

In her testimony, (Jane) Roberts also noted the benefit of working with senior government officials: “Successful people have successful friends.”

Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/31/jane-roberts-legal-recruiting-work-agencies-cases-supreme-court-00080515

[Cha]

23. Sorry, I don't understand

the post.. why you're posting it to me?

[Kid Berwyn]

25. Putin gave us Donald the Traitor.

SCROTUS keeps him there.

[Cha]

27. Oh yes, SCOTUS...

It must be so hard to be the 3 Patriots on the SC and watch our country go to the Fascist Vultures.

TY

[UTUSN]

24. K&R

[Kid Berwyn]

34. Does NWS over rely on X, formerly Twitter?

I remember a question about that not being asked on tee vee.

[ImNotGod]

26. The depleted weather service forecasted 7" of rain, they got 15", stupid government leads to deaths. nt

[Kid Berwyn]

35. True, but plenty of blame to go all around.

Multiple people and organizations all along the timeline, any one of which could have avoided tragedy.

For those poor children, these words are impossibly difficult to write.

First off, camping in a flood zone during torrential rain is criminal.

The NWS and local news predicted rain the day before.

So. Where were the adults who knew better? Certainly they weren’t camping next to a river with 8-year olds.

Campground on the river should have had a 24-hour watch to alert all campers. And all campers should’ve practiced escape routes to higher ground.

Better still, they should already have been on higher ground that night.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

28. NYT-As Floods Hit, Key Roles Were Vacant at Weather Service Offices in Texas (gift links)

Some experts say staff shortages might have complicated forecasters’ ability to coordinate responses with local emergency management officials.

🚨 NYT: As Floods Hit, Key Roles Were Vacant at Weather Service Offices in Texas

Some experts say staff shortages might have complicated forecasters’ ability to coordinate responses with local emergency management officials.

Gift link:

— MeidasTouch (@meidastouch.com) 2025-07-06T04:33:59.776Z

Link to tweet

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/05/us/politics/texas-floods-warnings-vacancies.html?unlocked_article_code=1.UU8.Zjkx.evidtrUYt_ZY&smid=tw-share

Crucial positions at the local offices of the National Weather Service were unfilled as severe rainfall inundated parts of Central Texas on Friday morning, prompting some experts to question whether staffing shortages made it harder for the forecasting agency to coordinate with local emergency managers as floodwaters rose.....

The staffing shortages suggested a separate problem, those former officials said — the loss of experienced people who would typically have helped communicate with local authorities in the hours after flash flood warnings were issued overnight.

The shortages are among the factors likely to be scrutinized as the death toll climbs from the floods. Separate questions have emerged about the preparedness of local communities, including Kerr County’s apparent lack of a local flood warning system. The county, roughly 50 miles northwest of San Antonio, is where many of the deaths occurred......

The National Weather Service’s San Angelo office, which is responsible for some of the areas hit hardest by Friday’s flooding, was missing a senior hydrologist, staff forecaster and meteorologist in charge, according to Tom Fahy, the legislative director for the National Weather Service Employees Organization, the union that represents Weather Service workers.

The Weather Service’s nearby San Antonio office, which covers other areas hit by the floods, also had significant vacancies, including a warning coordination meteorologist and science officer, Mr. Fahy said. Staff members in those positions are meant to work with local emergency managers to plan for floods, including when and how to warn local residents and help them evacuate.

That office’s warning coordination meteorologist left on April 30, after taking the early retirement package the Trump administration used to reduce the number of federal employees, according to a person with knowledge of his departure......

John Sokich, who until January was director of congressional affairs for the National Weather Service, said those unfilled positions made it harder to coordinate with local officials because each Weather Service office works as a team. “Reduced staffing puts that in jeopardy,” he said......

An equally important question, he added, was how the Weather Service was coordinating with local emergency managers to act on those warnings as they came in.

“You have to have a response mechanism that involves local officials,” Dr. Uccellini said. “It involves a relationship with the emergency management community, at every level.”

But that requires having staff members in those positions, he said......

Typically, Mr. Sokich said, the Weather Service will send an official to meet regularly with local emergency managers for what are called “tabletop operations” — planning ahead of time for what to do in case of a flash flood or other major weather disaster.

But the Trump administration’s pursuit of fewer staff members means remaining employees have less time to spend coordinating with local officials, he said.

I have been through a number of hurricanes/storms including Ike, Allison, Harvey and lately Berly. There were weather service people coordinating with local officials during all of these storms. Here the DOGE and trump cuts meant that the weather service did not have the staff available to coordinate with the local officials.

[Kid Berwyn]

36. One phone call could have made all the difference.

The various parties who knew dangerous thunderstorms were approaching should have made clear the threat of flash flooding Thursday night. Friday at 5 a.m. was too late to get evacuations started.

Going from what we now know, had these emergency communications been person-to-person — rather than by radio, phone or texts via X formerly Twitter — the general public and the campers would have been notified sooner and effectively.

The voices of NWS experts would make crystal clear why communities must get to higher ground. Instead, we get a treasonous crypto grifter and fiends thinking they’ll “probably” come to Texas Friday.

[SheltieLover]

33. Kick

[Kid Berwyn]

40. One Camp Evacuated In Time. Why Didn't ALL the Camps?

An important part of this tragic story that hasn't got much coverage:

Quick action by 1 Texas summer camp led to timely evacuations ahead of deadly flood

Despite an absence of warning by local authorities, camp officials acted quickly on their own.

By Associated Press
07/06/2025 07:37 PM EDT

It was about 1 a.m. on the Fourth of July when the facilities manager at a central Texas summer camp saw water from the Guadalupe River steadily rising amid a deluge of rain.

Aroldo Barrera notified his boss, who had been monitoring reports of the storms approaching Presbyterian Mo-Ranch Assembly, a recreation destination where an intercultural youth conference had been called off early just hours earlier.

Despite an absence of warning by local authorities, camp officials acted quickly on their own, relocating about 70 children and adults staying overnight in a building near the river. With the kids safe, camp leaders including President and CEO Tim Huchton were able to avoid the catastrophe that hit at least one other camp near Hunt, where the 500-acre Mo-Ranch is located.

“They helped them pack up,” Lisa Winters, communications director for Mo-Ranch, told The Associated Press on Sunday. “They got them up, they got them out, put them up on higher ground.”

Continued...

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/06/quick-action-by-1-texas-summer-camp-led-to-timely-evacuations-ahead-of-deadly-flood-00441065

[yellow dahlia]

38. K & R

[Kid Berwyn]

41. Chip Roy may not recognize it, but this is the truth.

Quick action by 1 Texas summer camp led to timely evacuations ahead of deadly flood

Despite an absence of warning by local authorities, camp officials acted quickly on their own.

By Associated Press
07/06/2025 07:37 PM EDT

Excerpt...

Local authorities have faced heavy scrutiny and at times have deflected questions about how much warning they had or were able to provide the public, saying the reviews will come later. For now, they say they’re focusing on rescues. Officials have said they did not expect such an intense downpour, the equivalent of months’ worth of rain for the area.

Mo-Ranch suffered no loss of life, said Winters, adding that the camp received no direct information from county officials about flooding that could — and did — take lives.

“We had no warning this was coming,” Winters said, adding that it would have been “devastating” had camp officials not been looking at weather reports and the rising river waters.

Mo-Ranch “saw it coming well in advance and they did something about it,” she said.

Continues...

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/06/quick-action-by-1-texas-summer-camp-led-to-timely-evacuations-ahead-of-deadly-flood-00441065

[yellow dahlia]

43. Thanks. You are a great source of information.

[Ruby the Liberal]

39. They should have moved that hurricane like Trump's sharpie ordered

[Kid Berwyn]

42. Some of the nicest people in the world live in the Texas Hill Country.

My wife's family hails from there. They are good people -- working to help others in their professions and making this a better world by treating others with kindness and respect.

Oh, and many of them are MAGA as all hell. But when we were their guests during the eclipse last April, they treated us like royalty. One of the things they did to make us feel welcome in their home was removing (hiding) all their political magazines, tchotchke and propaganda. And they didn't say a bad thing about Democrats or President Biden while I was in the room, anyway.

The reason I bring them up is that they have their "reasons" for believing as they do: Family traditions, old Bush GOP, liked Ike, etc. the thing is, if they had more liberals around to talk politics with, who knows? They and their state very well might start to think, act and vote differently. All it takes is good information from someone known and trusted.

Later last summer, some visited us in Detroit. We don't have much "stuff" about, but our books, so we didn't scrub our place to protect our guests' sensibilities. The husband of my wife's cousin and I sat down to talk -- weather and sports I thought at the time should do the trick -- but the FIRST thing he said, "I don't know how you feel about Trump, but I hate him." I said, "Me too." We got along like brothers after that.

[Ruby the Liberal]

44. Its heartwrenching

All because the donor class is too focused on managing to the quarter (IMO disregarding long term climate challenges), we are losing critical forecasting capabilities that cost over a hundred lives - and we're merely weeks into this.

I saw where the bulk of Texas' new power - and power stability - is now coming from solar and wind. Is grid failure next in line?

How people are still supporting this administration is beyond me, especially when it hits so close to home.

Glad you have an ally - thats a great feeling to have a kindred spirit in the group.

[Kid Berwyn]

45. Amazing insights on politics, yours.

People think their vote will support their interests. For the GOP, it's less taxes and small gubmint. They have no clue that both -- taxes and government services -- work in their best interests -- short term and long term. Seeing the oligarchs who own and operate the nation's news media makes clear why it's up to us to tell them.

Regarding my MAGA fam: They threw a cocktail party for us. One of the older cousins became sore mad at me for criticizing Trump (I had a drink or two and forgot not to talk politics). I brought up the NAZI influence on the GOP and detailed how. And he got angrier and angrier. I then brought up how his late father -- my wife's uncle -- had fought the bastards in World War II. I recounted the time his father had told me about how he had trained pilots to fly the twin-engine B-25 bombers in Texas. Meanwhile his brother -- my wife's dad -- was flying as a navigator aboard B-17Gs out of England.

The fact I remembered the role our cousin's dad served dring WW2 calmed him down enough long enough to really listen to what I had to say. I wasn't criticizing him or his beliefs: I was criticizing the lies a number of politicians had led him to believe. By the time we were done, we were back to the jug, hugs and back-slapping.

That direct connection between GOP policies and NAZI/KKK/Dixie ideology was not being expressed by the nation's mass media, nor is it much taught in schools any more. Heck, the family is descended from Germans who emigrated when the Kaiser wanted to draft them for cannon-fodder in one of the wars against France after Napoleon. During the Civil War in America, several of their new countrymen in the great state of Texas volunteered to fight to preserve the Union and were murdered by their fellow Texans who supported the Confederacy.

These are misled, misguided and misinformed people of good character. If they knew what we do, they'd vote straight Democratic ticket. I'm working on that.

Regarding the flooding: One cousin opened up the family ranch for use by the emergency responders. They did so without compensation nor publicity.

[Ruby the Liberal]

46. Right back atcha

Sounds like good people! I hope they realize what Trump is actually doing and reject it/him. A lot of people are going to get hurt by all of this greed, incompetence and revenge-tour infantile behavior.