While Texans are looking for answers to Hill Country’s floods, some meteorologists and political decision -makers call for the creation of a disaster examination committee modeled after the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating all civil aviation accidents and the main transport incidents.
The idea of an independent non -partisan board of directors to review the weather disasters is nothing new, but it seems to earn a new traction after the floods in Texas have left more than 120 dead and 170 others disappeared.
During its Senate confirmation audience on Wednesday to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Neil Jacobs approved the idea when Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, asked what he would do to guarantee that Americans can better respond to emergency weather warnings.
“We also need more data and do post-temple assessments,” said Jacobs. “One of the things I have considered, because I have worked on several aviation accidents with NTSB, is something in the sense of what they are doing, but for weather disasters because we need data to understand what went well, what went wrong, if people have obtained warnings.”
The legislators on both sides of the aisle have already taken this torch before.
Sense. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and Bill Cassidy, R-La., Have introduced several invoices since 2020 which would create a security council in the event of a natural disaster modeled after the NTSB. Representative Katie Porter, D-Calif., And several GOP colleagues presented company invoices to the House.
In 2022, the Chamber approved legislation which included a measure to create a natural disaster security board, but died in the Senate.
The bills would have created an independent table of seven members with a power of assignment to carry out the search for facts and identify the underlying causes of the impact of disasters without attributing the blame.
Cassidy and Shatz did not immediately respond to a request for comments to find out if they think there is a renewed momentum at Capitol Hill for having created an examination committee in the event of a disaster. Porter is no longer a member of the Congress.
In an email at NBC News, the only meteorologist in the Congress, representative Eric Sorensen, D-ill., Said that he was working with colleagues to create an NTSB style program to investigate deadly storms.
“It would be incredible if meteorologists could have access to investigation reports that help us understand what – if something – went wrong and what we can do in the future to be better,” said Sorensen, adding that “clearly the tragic floods in Texas would benefit from such a report.”
The state of Sorensen was also struck by a powerful deluge this week, with about 5 inches of rain falling in 90 minutes on Garfield Park, on the west side of Chicago, causing several rescues.
The floods of Chicago and Texas were two of the four extreme precipitation events in less than a week that the researchers would expect once every thousand years.
In meteorology and disaster management circles, the concept of an independent council to examine disasters has been percolated for years. Mike Smith, meteorologist and former main vice-president of Accuweather, pushed the idea since Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
