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From the Washington Post:
NOAA scrambles to fill forecasting jobs as hurricane season looms
The 155 vacancies the agency is seeking to fill by May 27 include key weather forecasting positions at offices in coastal Texas and Louisiana, states that could face threats when the Atlantic hurricane season begins in a few weeks. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the weather service’s parent agency, is also asking large numbers of meteorologists to move to offices in Alaska and across the northern Plains in Nebraska, Wyoming and South Dakota.The agency acknowledged “urgent action is needed to sustain mission-critical operations,” as peak severe weather and hurricane season approach.
ALSO INCLUDED IN THE ARTICLE:
On the Gulf Coast, the Lake Charles, Louisiana, office needs a meteorologist-in-charge and two senior meteorologists. In the forecasting office that oversees the Houston region, the agency is also seeking a meteorologist-in-charge and a senior meteorologist.
ADDITIONALLY:
The office in Fairbanks, Alaska, needs five meteorologists. The Hanford, California, office is seeking four meteorologists, an electronics systems analyst, an electronics technician and an information technology officer. An office in Goodland, Kansas, needs three senior meteorologists, while several offices in Arkansas, Michigan, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming are seeking two senior meteorologists. Offices overseeing the Cleveland and Cincinnati regions are seeking a meteorologist-in-charge.
note: NO POST SUBSCRIPTION REQUIRED TO CONTNUE
FEMA Head Admits in Internal Meetings He Doesn’t Yet Have a Plan for Hurricane Season
FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL:
WASHINGTON—The newly appointed head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency acknowledged in private meetings that with two weeks to go until hurricane season, the agency doesn’t yet have a fully formed disaster-response plan.
David Richardson, who previously served as a senior official at the Department of Homeland Security and doesn’t have a background in emergency management, told staff he would share a hurricane plan with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after he completes it late next week. He said Thursday he’s 80% to 85% done with the plan. The agency is already months behind schedule in its preparations for the hurricane season starting June 1, which is expected to have above-normal activity, according to FEMA employees.
link to the Journal (Open link, no sub required)
ERN NEWS COMMENT: THIS general lack of preparedness and the desire of the Trump administration to move FEMA functions to state and local governments sends a message as hurricane season approaches. The message: be ready to do more and expect less in the way of federal assitance. In short, this could bring more disaster on top of hurricane disasters.
FROM THE LA TIMES:
LA TIMES WITH A LINK BELOW
As federal job eliminations struck the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service on Thursday, scientists and environmental advocates denounced the cuts, saying they could cause real harm to Americans.
The full extent of the layoffs across NOAA were not immediately clear, but Democratic legislators said hundreds of scientists and experts had been notified of terminated employment. NOAA — which includes the National Hurricane Center and the Tsunami Warning Center — is the latest in a string of federal agencies targeted for cuts by billionaire Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
“Musk’s sham mission is bringing vital programs to a screeching halt,” Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, wrote in a statement Thursday. “People nationwide depend on NOAA for free, accurate forecasts, severe weather alerts, and emergency information. Purging the government of scientists, experts, and career civil servants and slashing fundamental programs will cost lives.”
FURTHER ALONG IN THE ARTICLE:
Tom Di Liberto, a longtime scientist and spokesperson for NOAA’s headquarters in Washington, was among those who received a termination email Thursday, along with at least six others in his office. Although he wasn’t surprised by the decision — having watched several other federal agencies deal with similar cuts — he said he was still extremely disappointed and feared for NOAA’s mission.
“This is not something you would do if you cared about the safety of Americans ... the health of the oceans,” Di Liberto said. He had worked at NOAA since 2010, first on contract for several years before being hired full-time in March 2023.
“We weren’t just hired — a lot of us were working with NOAA for a very long period,” he said. He also noted that his termination email cited that he was fired “because of his ability, knowledge and/or skills do not fit the agency’s current needs” — though he said he had received glowing performance reviews.
(ERN NEWS comment: these kinds of emails received by federal employees have used the same insulting language as a reason for people being dismissed even though there is no way a massive evaluation process could have taken place in a matter of days. This language was used either as a legal cover tactic or simply because the person sending it out was irresponsible and completely callus toward the federal workers. The wording, to the employees, represents insult to injury. You are not merely losing your income, you are no good, too.)
We at ERN NEWS, like all news media, rely every day, hour by hour, on NOAA and the National Weather Service. These organizations gather mountains of data and process it constantly. Without these sources the media ecosphere built around them would fall flat on its face. If they are weakened and wounded, the quality of information the public receives will decline dramatically.
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NEW YORK TIMES STORY
Trump Team Plans Deep Cuts at Office That Funds Recovery From Big Disasters
Christopher Flavelle has covered U.S. disaster recovery programs for almost a decade.
- Feb. 20, 2025 Updated 12:28 p.m. ET
The Trump administration plans to all but eliminate the office that oversees America’s recovery from the largest disasters, raising questions about how the United States will rebuild from hurricanes, wildfires and other calamities made worse by climate change.
The Office of Community Planning and Development, part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, pays to rebuild homes and other recovery efforts after the country’s worst disasters, such as Hurricane Helene in North Carolina and Hurricane Milton in Florida.
The administration plans to cut the staff in that office by 84 percent, according to a document obtained by The New York Times. The number of workers would be cut to 150, from 936 when Mr. Trump took office last month.
Those cuts could slow the distribution of recovery money to North Carolina and other recent disasters, depending how quickly they happen.
free, OPEN link to the NY Times full story
A MASSIVE DISASTER ACROSS THE SOUTHERN STATES
FROM THE WASHINGTON POST IN REGARD TO CLAIMS/FLOOD INSURANCE:
Jeff Jackson, the interim senior executive of the National Flood Insurance Program, said in a statement, “Flood risk is under appreciated across the nation — even in flood prone areas. That’s a challenge we continue to face and will continue to work on as we remain committed to closing the flood insurance gap across the nation.”
“Right now, it’s important that survivors of Helene file their flood and or homeowners’ insurance claims immediately,” Jackson added. “I urge those who are uninsured to register for FEMA disaster assistance now.”
ERN NEWS COMMENT: We have heard in the past that getting any assistance from FEMA is a long, drawn out pain so filing NOW means at least people will get started on the process that might take one or two years to complete. Some of the assistance available is in the form of loans, not grants.
AGAIN, from the Washington Post:
Samantha Montano, a professor of emergency management at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, says that survivors must navigate a web of complicated red tape to even get that amount of funding (a thousand dollars). Some disaster victims will submit five or six appeals after being denied the first time. “People will describe it as the second disaster, just because of how difficult it is to navigate,” she said. FEMA has attempted major reforms under Biden. You can get details at this link: https://www.fema.gov/assistance/individual/2024-reform
Note: It has been reported that the processes of FEMA in the past have been so difficult and complex that people who work at the agency resign in total frustration with the system. They say they just can't take it anymore.
HERE'S A LINK TO THE CHARLESTON, SC, POST AND COURIER ABOUT THE IMPACT ACROSS WESTERN SOUTH CAROLINA. A GOOD, DETAILED, VIVID STORY: https://shorturl.at/juJQp
An earlier report:
The full scope of the disaster from Helene is all but impossible to adequately describe and challenges the largest, best equipped news organizations to cover it. The story, in reality, is many stories scattered across Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. While the damage from the high winds on the Big Bend of Florida was a central part of the event, the massive flooding in North Carolina alone is staggering.
It is far beyond the resources of ERN NEWS to bring the intimate details to readers, which is why we have refrained from frequent posting once Helene moved inland. The NY Times and the Washington Post, as news organizations with a national focus, have done an excellent job of collecting and relaying information. Yet, this is an event that is impossible to fully comprehend because it is so widespread and the impact varies from place to place. What is becoming clear is that Hurricane Helene represents an historic level of damage and death comparable to any of the worst storms to ever hit the American mainland.
One point is clear: people in the inland path of Helene either did not get enough warning about what was coming or failed to respond adequately in time. It might be a combination of both factors. New, better systems of spreading information need to be established, ones that take into account not just the predicted rain expected but include upstream monitoring of the rise of creeks and rivers. We can do better and we must in the future to prevent the loss of life involved in this storm system, having claimed around 100 or more lives, as of the latest count.
Below is a link to the NY Times and their survey of the death and damage from Helene
THE FUTURE
ERN NEWS and our associated non-profit, the Emergency Response Network, will be involved moving forward in helping to implement better advanced warning systems and other actions developing as a result of this disaster. We will post information here in the coming weeks and months. Please come back soon.