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Donald Trump’s administration pushed back on allegations that cuts to the federal workforce hampered its response to deadly Texas flash floods at the weekend, as the death toll surpassed 100 and the search for survivors continued into its fourth day.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday said National Weather Service offices in San Angelo and San Antonio, Texas, were “fully staffed” during the catastrophic flooding.
“Many Democrat elected officials are trying to turn this into a political game and it is not,” said Leavitt at the White House. “It is a national tragedy and the administration is treating it as such.”
Earlier on Monday, Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the Senate, called on the commerce department’s acting inspector general to investigate whether staffing levels at NWS offices in Texas contributed to the deadly tragedy.
The White House has slashed thousands of jobs from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the agency that oversees the NWS, leading to questions about whether staff shortages had resulted in a lack of adequate warnings.
The president planned to visit Texas this week, likely on Friday, Leavitt said.
The NWS said the local offices “had additional forecasters on duty” during the holiday weekend and “all forecasts and warnings were issued in a timely manner”. The offices were also “able to provide decision support services to local partners”.
Authorities have not cited a figure for the total number of missing persons because so many people were camping along the river for the holiday weekend.
US Senator Ted Cruz of Texas on Monday said: “This is not a time for partisan finger pointing and attacks.”
“There will naturally be a period of retrospection” after search and rescue efforts and rebuilding efforts were completed, he added.
Camp Mystic, the Christian summer girls camp that was inundated by floodwaters, on Monday said in its first public statement since the disaster that 27 campers and counsellors had died, describing it as an “unimaginable tragedy”. Ten campers and one counsellor remain missing.
Torrential downpours began in central Texas on Friday and continued through the July 4 holiday weekend, claiming the lives of at least 84 people in Kerr County and 20 more in surrounding counties, according to local media.
In the early morning hours of Friday, the Guadalupe River that runs through Hill Country in central Texas rose by 26ft (8 metres) in 45 minutes, bursting its banks and sweeping everything in its path downriver.
Initial forecasts from the NWS predicted 4-8 inches of rain for Hill Country. The area received as much as 15 inches of rain in the deluge.
Hill Country, called “flash flood alley”, is marked by narrow, serpentine valleys and steep rocky hillsides that funnel water downstream into nearby creeks and rivers. When heavy rains come, the water cannot soak quickly into the ground because of the area’s thin layer of topsoil over limestone and granite.
State and local officials refused to address questions about whether sufficient warnings were given and why people were not evacuated before the floods hit, saying their focus was on rescue and recovery efforts.
More rain continued to fall in the area on Monday. The NWS issued a flood watch for Hill Country and the interstate highway 35 corridor through 7pm local time.
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