The BDN Editorial Board operates independently from the newsroom, and does not set policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com.
The scope of devastation from last week’s flood in Texas Hill Country is heartbreaking. More than 120 people have been confirmed dead. Another 160 are still missing.
Our hearts ache for the lives lost, including those of the 27 young girls and counselors who were washed away from Camp Mystic on the banks of the Guadalupe River.
We mourn for those who perished in the raging waters. We feel the devastation of the homes, livelihoods and memories that were taken by the rising river.
And we are in awe of the countless acts of bravery — by first responders, bystanders and military members, like the Coast Guard rescue swimmer who is credited with saving at least 165 lives. Many people risked their lives to save others. They deserve our thanks and support.
As we mourn, we must also ask questions and seek answers, from government officials at all levels.
It is too simplistic, and premature, to lay blame for the high death toll on the Trump administration, state or county officials. However, the families of those who perished, Kerr County residents who lost their homes, Texans who will help rebuild and all Americans need an accounting of what happened and if any steps — including assessment of changing weather and climate patterns, and early warning systems — may have helped reduce the devastation.
While there are differing accounts of staffing levels at federal agencies in Texas, the flooding in Kerr County — along with this week’s floods in New Mexico and North Carolina — are a reminder that severe storms are becoming more frequent and more devastating. Anything that federal, state and local government can do to help Americans avoid or minimize these tragedies should be a priority, no matter your political affiliation.
To better understand why the flooding in Texas was so damaging, there must be support for research and assessment of changing and worsening weather patterns, with an emphasis on what impact climate change has on these events.
The recently passed Republican-backed One Big Beautiful Bill Act will reduce support for clean energy, likely exacerbating climate change, which is largely driven by rising emissions from burning fossil fuels.
In addition, the budgets the White House has submitted to Congress for next year would reduce funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration by more than a quarter. It would also eliminate the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research — NOAA’s research arm — and more than $700 million in spending that funds climate and weather research, enabling “better forecasts” and “earlier warnings for natural disasters,” according to the office’s website.
There is debate about whether adequate warning was given about the flooding danger in Texas. Experts warn that with further cutback to the National Weather Service and NOAA future warnings will likely be missed or delayed.
“Lives are going to be lost, property is going to be damaged,” Rick Spinrad, who served as NOAA administrator under former President Joe Biden, told Politico about the cuts.
At the local level, officials in Kerr County, Texas, had long considered a warning system to alert residents to rising river waters. But they couldn’t find a way to pay for it in a state and era when tax increases stir strong opposition. Texas officials turned down the county’s application for federal funds allocated to such projects. Now, the Trump administration has canceled funding for the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, including funding for projects that had already been approved.
Preparing for natural disasters, and recovering from them, is too big a job to be left to local communities. The devastation in Texas is a reminder of the value of the Federal Emergency Management Agency amid efforts to diminish the agency and to restrict its work to states and areas that backed President Donald Trump.
Nationally, the Trump administration has reduced staffing at the National Weather Service and its parent agency, NOAA.
These reductions are already having an impact, including in Maine. In March, the Gray office of the National Weather Service suspended twice-daily weather balloon launches because of a staffing shortage, a move meteorologists say has affected forecast accuracy in the region because of a lack of data from the upper atmosphere.
Although climate change has become a dirty word to some partisans, better understanding what drives warming temperatures and worsening natural disasters simply makes sense, from a human and economic perspective.
To ensure the condolences expressed in Texas don’t become hollow platitudes, elected leaders should reverse these cuts and commit to understanding climate change and help communities become more resilient and ready to mitigate its consequences, before they become deadly tragedies.
