President Donald Trump on Friday defended the National Weather Service's advanced warnings of the heavy rainfall that caused catastrophic flooding in central Texas last week, killing over 120 people. The local NWS office was "well stocked more than normal" and "gave a lot of warnings," Trump told Fox News host Will Cain. The interview comes as the federal government faces scrutiny over the weather agency's staffing cuts .
Of the roughly 4,200 people in the NWS workforce, about 600 were either laid off or retired this year. Some have argued the Trump administration's NWS cuts led to a forecast that underestimated the amount of rain in Kerr County, Texas. The White House argues the staffing reductions did not play a role in the flood's outcome and accused Democrats of politicizing the natural disaster.
"The problem with the warnings" is that the flooding "happened so fast," Trump said. The agency issued flash flood warnings on the night of July 3 and into the early morning of July 4, providing lead times of more than three hours. But the heavy rainfall caused the Guadalupe River to rise 26 feet in 45 minutes, taking locals by surprise.
"It's easy to blame the federal government, but the money was tremendous," Trump said. "Everything was there, and they did a really good job. They actually had warnings the day before that there was going to be something, and they then had the warnings very shortly, right before this horrible, tragic event.
" "This was a case where the Weather Ser.
