“Politicians are wrong” to blame forecasts for inaccurate predictions of Ida threats: ex-meteorologist

Gary Szatkowski, who was a first federal predictor in New Jersey during Hurricane Sandy, called on New York City politicians to suggest that the forecasts could not predict the timing and intensity of Idathreats.

“Politicians are wrong,” Szatkowski said during a Friday evening interview on CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith.” “There have been a lot of warnings, there have been a lot of forecasts, a lot of warnings issued regarding Ida coming into the region with the potential for heavy rainfall.”

At least 13 people in the New York City area have been killed while the remnants of Hurricane Ida have hit the city with record rains and flooding. The mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio repeated Friday that city officials had no idea what was going to happen in New York Wednesday night.

“Here’s what we didn’t know, that we would have literally shocking and unprecedented rainfall,” Blasio said during a media briefing. “We had a one-hour Wednesday night period that set the all-time record for just one hour in history, New York’s recorded history, and no one predicted it to come.”

Szatkowski pointed out accurate forecasts by meteorologists and weather experts ahead of the storm for dangerous, even fatal precipitation in the New York area.

He also noted that New York officials were able to simply “look to their west” to see what was happening and pass on warnings to residents hours before the rain landed in the city.

“There have been flash floods, torrential rains, water saved first, in Pennsylvania, then in Philadelphia itself, and then in New Jersey, and then it came to New York, and there are hours and hours, you could watch this coming to New York. York City, and be prepared and be aware of what was going to happen, ”said Szatkowski, a former meteorologist with the National Meteorological Service.

Blasio’s mayor’s office did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment