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  • 7/8/2025
During a White House press briefing on Monday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about the flash flood warnings that were sent out in Texas.
Transcript
00:00Go ahead. In the back. Kelly, go ahead.
00:03Great, thank you.
00:04And then in front of you.
00:05A couple questions for you.
00:07Y'all need name tags.
00:10First question on the flooding in Texas.
00:12I know there has been some concern about the timing of the alerts,
00:15knowing that they did go out, but the warning's coming out in the wee hour,
00:19so while many people were likely sleeping.
00:22Can you share just details what you know about why those warnings were sent,
00:26while people were likely sleeping,
00:27and then what the administration's doing to ensure that these alerts come out sooner?
00:31Well, the alerts imminently were sent out before the flood when people were sleeping
00:36because the flood hit in the very early hours of the morning.
00:39So people were sleeping in the middle of the night when this flood came.
00:42That was an act of God.
00:44It's not the administration's fault that the flood hit when it did.
00:48But there were early and consistent warnings.
00:50And again, the National Weather Service did its job.
00:53On July 2nd, there were initial notices of potential weather and flooding risks were issued.
00:59On July 3rd, escalating warnings throughout the day with a flood watch issued at 1.18 p.m.
01:05And then later, at 6.10 p.m. on July 3rd,
01:08the Weather Prediction Center warned of excessive rainfall and a high likelihood of flash flooding.
01:13At 6.22 p.m. July 3rd, National Weather Center issued a hydraulic warning highlighting considerable flooding risks,
01:21including in Carriville County.
01:22And then there were the timely flash flood alerts at 11.41 p.m., 1.14 a.m.
01:28And then another flash flood emergency warning issued at 4.03 a.m. just before the flood hit.
01:33So those were all of the warnings that went out to the affected area and region.

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