'Evil person': Trump lashes out as reporter asks about flood alert failure
A Texas CBS News reporter asked President Donald Trump about recent revelations that FEMA documents showed emergency alerts about devastating floods were not sent to cell phones as previously indicated.
While the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration sent out alerts that would have triggered those with weather radios, key cell phone alerts did not go out until it was too late.
The National Weather Service also sent out its flood warning from the system, known as IPAWS, as early as 1:14 a.m.
"However, weather service forecasters cannot issue instructions on whether to evacuate or wait for rescue; those messages are up to county or city officials," reported NBC 5 News. "The FEMA archive showed that Kerr County did not send any wireless alerts through IPAWS on July 4, when the flooding began."
"Several families we've heard from are obviously upset because they say that those warnings, those alerts, didn't go out in time. And they also say that people could have been saved. What do you say to those families?" the reporter asked.
Trump pivoted to say that "everyone did an incredible job," refusing to address the suggestion of failures.
"This was, I guess, Kristi [Noem] said, a 1 in 500, 1 in 1,000 years" event, Trump claimed. "And I just have admiration for the job that everybody did. There was just admiration.
"Only a bad person would ask a question like that, to be honest with you. I don't know who you are, but only a very evil person would ask a question like that. I think this has been heroism. This has been incredible, really, the job you've all done, it's easy to sit back and say, oh, what could have happened here? There? You know, maybe we could have done something differently. This was a thing that has never happened before, and nobody's ever seen anything — I've never seen anything like this."
The area of Texas where the flood occurred is known as Flash Flood Ally. It has experienced huge floods previously, including one in 1987. It prompted mayors in the past to beg for alert sirens, though it was later decided not to install them.
"I've never seen anything like this," Trump complained. "So, I admire you, and I consider you heroes and heroines. And I think you've done an amazing job."