On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Laura Coates Live,” AccuWeather Meteorologist Geoff Cornish said that he thinks the National Weather Service did send out warnings on the floods in Texas in time.
Guest Omar Jimenez host asked, “I know you’ve heard the criticism, but can you evaluate the response from the National Weather Service for us? Did they send out the warnings with enough time?”
Cornish responded, “My opinion is that they did. And, Omar, we had a really challenging timing for this event here, the fact that the flash flooding escalated between midnight and 4 a.m., it’s no excuse. We live in a country with the absolute best warning system in the world, and we have redundancies. There is the technology that offers cell phone alerts, sometimes, that doesn’t work because people may not have their cell phone with them, maybe they’re in a rural area. The good old-fashioned NOAA weather radio has strong coverage in Kerr County, Texas.”
Cornish added that “this is just such a challenging thing in terms of timing. But, keep in mind, there was a flash flood watch issued back the preceding day on Thursday the 3rd of July at 1:14 p.m. so — or 1:48 p.m. So, that was kind of the heads up that if you’re in the — if you were responsible for the well-being of other people, it’s not the night to disconnect from the weather.” And that delegation so someone who is responsible for a part of the county could talk to whoever’s running the camp directly.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
Read the full article here