protist

The federal government has been dismantling weather systems left and right. Those systems could have given valuable minutes of warning. Flash floods do happen, but even 10 minutes of warning can pretty much save everyone.

All this is true

The reason they did not have this warning is because of Donald Trump. And then after him every single republican politician.

This is not clear. What does a warning from the NWS look like? Because they issued them:

At 4:06 a.m. the National Weather Service Austin/San Antonio posted on X: "A very dangerous flash flooding event is ongoing." It ended: "Turn Around, Don't Drown!"

Then, at 5:15 a.m. the National Weather Service San Angelo posted on X that there was a flash flood emergency. The Austin/San Antonio office posted on its X account about the emergency at 5:23 a.m. This type of alert is "exceedingly rare" and used when there is a "severe threat to human life and catastrophic damage," according to the National Weather Service.

But how does this message get to people who are asleep? The best answer is the Wireless Emergency Alert system. I haven't seen any information one way or the other indicating whether this system was activated in a timely manner. If it wasn't, that was a serious mistake that costed lives.

Let me be clear that cuts to the NWS are going to end up costing lives. There is no doubt about that. But I think it's important to understand the reality of a situation rather than reflexively blaming Trump

Edit to add the NYT is reporting on specific vacancies at the local NWS offices that were dedicated to communicating with local officials. Probably a serious contributing factor here to the word taking longer to get out

We switched from side-by-side to a pullout drawer freezer on bottom and could not be happier. Side-by-side really limits your storage space, whereas top and bottom units allow you to store larger or unusually shaped things. And having the freezer in a drawer is clutch, way better than having it on top

I very much agree

Unfortunately, even with better forecasting, it wouldn't have been possible to predict exactly how much rain was going to fall or where in a storm like this, but just two days before all this started, they were literally predicting sunshine this weekend in Central Texas.

There's a huge element of randomness in this kind of storm, where one area gets 15+" of rain while 30 miles away they only get 3", but a warning that excessive localized rainfall was a possibility would've been helpful.

I also blame the local government. Central Texas is flash flood central due to our geography, and all local governments should have emergency preparedness plans to send out push notifications to people in their areas. This all went down in the middle of the night and happened so fast that the local government got caught totally off guard though

They cut off the bluest part

Just remember that the news is showing you bad things that happen from everywhere in the country (which is huge). There are a lot of really good things happening too, and a lot of people just going about their lives, but that stuff doesn't make the news.

You don't have a daily dog? What else would you eat after dinner?

You had me up until that last part

I'm right there with you as far as how our government is functioning on the whole, but everything I see indicates state and federal officials are taking this one seriously. Remember, this threatens the beef and dairy industries, which are not exactly politically passive

There was an outbreak in Florida in 2016, which was quickly contained. We know how to stop it. They used to be widespread across all of North America

This question didn't say anything at all about problems and I think you've overreacted.

But right after it mentions supply chain issues, it talks about unauthorized migration through the Darien Gap and the illegal cattle trade in Central America. Just saying, criticize where it's due, and Trump's due criticism for almost everything he's done, but this problem is complex and exists independently of him and independently of the United States