The death toll from flooding in Texas surpassed 100 on Monday, as officials faced scrutiny over the adequacy of local warning systems.
National Weather Service meteorologists didn’t err in their forecasts, experts said — the agency escalated flood warnings ahead of the storm — but “even quite good weather forecasts do not automatically translate into life-saving predictions,” one climate scientist said. Rather, flood-warning sirens could have made a difference, Texas’ lieutenant governor said Monday, adding that they must be in place by next summer.
Experts also dismissed conspiracy theories that cloud seeding technology caused the flooding; similar misinformation surfaced after damaging floods hit the United Arab Emirates last year.
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