Months after the Deadly Floods of Texas, a member of the Congress is still looking for answers

Almost two months after the tragic floods of July 4 in Texas who killed more than 130 people, representative Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, said that he was still looking for answers to some of the most fundamental questions about the federal government’s response.

What emergency officials did the National Weather Service called the night of floods? How did the agency staff succeed for the Storm event? How do vacancies in key positions at the National Weather Service Bureau Local, such as the warning meteorologist, affected the result?

In four letters to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and in a fifth at the Ministry of Commerce, the member of the Austin Congress demanded files that would help tell the story of July 4.

“I have never received a written response,” said Doggett, who accuses agencies of making his requests.

The push of the member of the Congress for the files highlights the gaps in the public accounting of what happened that day. In the aftermath of the floods, independent meteorologists said that the National Weather Service had expressed timely warnings and that its forecasts were solid, given the limits of modern forecasting technology during sudden flood events.

What was less clear then – and it remains at the end of August – was how the agency was able to reach emergency managers and other stakeholders in the field when the risk for specific locations has become obvious. Reach it “Last Mile” is something that former NWS meteorologists have said that the planned offices are short of staff or overmented.

“If they have nothing to hide and the Trump Slash-And-Burn approach to the weather service has no impact here, they must produce the newspapers,” said Doggett, referring to the files he has sought. “It may be caught on the public’s attention on this subject to make the administration react.”

Neither the NOAA nor the Commerce Department responded to requests for comments.

Doggett sent his first letter to the Noaa on May 20, before the flood. In the letter, which was addressed to the acting administrator of the NOAA, Laura Grimm, Doggett shared concerns about the vacancy rate at the Austin / San Antonio weather forecast office. This office supervised forecasts and communication in areas hit hard by the storms of July.

“A 22% vacation rate at the local NWS compromises the speed of forecasts and warnings on which the community is based,” wrote Doggett, asking how the agency would face the staff shortages and if it planned to fill one of the roles of the office.

After the flood disaster, Doggett followed with the NOAA on July 8 with 15 additional questions about the agency’s answer. Doggett said he received a videoconferencing meeting on July 11 with Ken Graham, the agency director.

In a letter sent after the meeting on July 11, and again in a follow -up of July 24, Doggett asked the agency to provide appeal newspapers, cat newspapers, radar archives and quarter newspapers, among other recordings.

“He said things were easy to provide,” said Doggett, relaying his memory of Graham’s comments at their zoom meeting. “I have been asking for this since and there is no good explanation.”

Executive branch agencies are authorized to react to their discretion to individual members of the congress leading to surveillance, according to the interpretation of the Ministry of Justice. But executive agencies often respond voluntarily to the requests of the congress.

Doggett said he was hunted down from the NOAA with calls and SMS, and in a letter of August 27 to the Secretary of Commerce, Howard Litnick, Doggett accused the trade department of having stifled an answer that he thought he had been prepared by the Noaa to answer his questions.

“I have been informed that the answers to my requests have been prepared, but that these are hidden by your office,” wrote Doggett. “We have no evidence of the preparation, communication and response of the NWS – or their absence – linked to the flood of July 4. The refusal to provide a complete and timely response suggests that the administration has something to hide concerning its management of this tragedy. ”

Doggett said that four Austin children were killed in floods and called for an investigation into the tragedy similar to that carried out by the National Transportation Safety Board after major disasters, an idea that attracted bipartite support.

“If it had been 27 children lost in a plane crash, we would have the NTSB making an in -depth investigation into all aspects of the state, federal and local [actions]”Said Doggett.” I do not see any indication of an in -depth assessment of what has done and did not occur at the federal level. »»

NBC News has filed several requests from the Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) from the NOAA, seeking files to the NWS. Some of these requests could represent records with answers to Doggett questions, but they have not yet been filled.

One of the requests, for discussion newspapers and communications between forecasters, has been listed as “assigned to treatment”, according to the website of public archives of the Department of Commerce. The agency said that another request – for information on staff and job deletions – would be processed by lots and published publicly as well as other similar requests concerning Texas floods.

“We are working to provide an interim release by the beginning of September, with current outings until the end of the year,” wrote Julia Swanson, the agency’s coordinator in an update of the status of August 18. “To effectively concentrate our limited personnel resources, all other Foia requests have been temporarily filed so that the NWS Foia team can focus on the processing of flood requests from Texas.”