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Firing of 800 NOAA Employees

Randy Zipser said:
I can "second" your comment and observation about Mike's time in the "crowded" OKC met market in the early 1970s. "The OKC Legend" Channel 9's Gary England and Channel 5's Ross Dixon were tough competition in that market, but I always remember Mike's weathercasts, particularly on weekends in April-May tornado season, even though Jim Williams was on air more frequently weekdays. Ditto for Mike's KARD/KSN weathercasts from ICT which I could get in AYS during the late 1970s.
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My comments were in regard to the St. Louis market later, but the situation was similar. He was up against Dave Murray, a very popular (and also very good) TV met, but IMHO Mike's weathercasts were even better than Dave's. St. Louis was fortunate to have such good weather coverage back in those days. By the time I retired and moved away, it was not as good, although probably still better than some other markets.
 
Mike Smith said:
  • Governor Ron DeSantis and his emergency management team have done simply amazing work in the field of disaster recovery, In the wake of Cat 4 Ian (poorly forecast by the federal government, by the way), his repair of the unusable Pine Island Bridge ( Florida completes repairs on Pine Island bridge in just 3 days ) was simply amazing. One of the primary purposes of the NDRB is to promulgate "best practices." The feds would have taken months to repair the bridge. Ian's too-high death toll of 161 would have been even higher without the bridge to move aid in and out.
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So as not to stray too far off topic, the Pine Island Bridge replacement three-days after Hurricane Ian is a good example of how a state governor, in this case, Ron DeSantis, was able to demonstrate more decisive leadership skills in the face of that natural disaster than the bureaucratic federal government could ever have done! It just takes the desire and know-how "from the top down" to lead in a crisis! One of the very best examples of this in recent memory was how several agencies of the federal government failed to act decisively or effectively following Hurricane Katrina in September, 2005. The following link is from a U.S. Senate report on findings about how several federal agencies horribly bungled their responses and lessons learned: http://www.disastersrus.org/katrina/senatereport/KatCon.pdf.
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There was a news story earlier today on CNN related to further budget cuts, including at NOAA. Please see the three story links below, two from today and a related one from April 11, 2025 about the NOAA layoffs and cuts. In the administration's latest budget proposal, environmental and climate research are targeted for cuts.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/02/weat...s-trump?iid=cnn_buildContentRecirc_end_recirc

https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/02/poli...pending?iid=cnn_buildContentRecirc_end_recirc

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/11/climate/trump-noaa-budget-cuts/index.html
 
Randy Zipser said:
There was a news story earlier today on CNN related to further budget cuts, including at NOAA. Please see the three story links below, two from today and a related one from April 11, 2025 about the NOAA layoffs and cuts. In the administration's latest budget proposal, environmental and climate research are targeted for cuts.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/02/weat...s-trump?iid=cnn_buildContentRecirc_end_recirc

https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/02/poli...pending?iid=cnn_buildContentRecirc_end_recirc

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/11/climate/trump-noaa-budget-cuts/index.html
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P.S. In order to view the full article from the third link above, please just go to the cnn.com website and pull up that URL link, as cnn will allow only a couple of "freebies" per IP address at a time...and I'm over my quota!
 
Randy Zipser said:
There was a news story earlier today on CNN related to further budget cuts, including at NOAA. Please see the three story links below, two from today and a related one from April 11, 2025 about the NOAA layoffs and cuts. In the administration's latest budget proposal, environmental and climate research are targeted for cuts.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/02/weat...s-trump?iid=cnn_buildContentRecirc_end_recirc

https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/02/poli...pending?iid=cnn_buildContentRecirc_end_recirc

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/11/climate/trump-noaa-budget-cuts/index.html
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Hi Randy,

A few comments:
  • Please see my post (above) regarding GLD being part-time.
  • An article that quotes Rick Spinrad about issues with the NWS is the epitome of chutzpah! His utter mismanagement of the NWS is why so many of the still existing positions are unfilled. No complaint he has about President Trump has any credibility as he knows nothing about weather or weather management and, evidently, is proud of it.
  • While it is not a good thing there are offices without MIC's, that is what the regional offices are supposed to do: set policy and the MIC's carry it out. As far as I'm concerned the regional offices should have been cut and the field offices preserved. See the point below.
  • While the Trump Administration is has blame, what are they supposed to do when the U.S. Senate refuses to take up the nomination of Dr. Neil Jacobs, Trump's highly-qualified nominee to be head of NOAA? It isn't the WH's job to manage or micromanage the NWS. The lazy (and in this case, perhaps influenced by marine interests) U.S. Senate prevents a real plan from being put in place.
 
Randy Zipser said:
P.S. In order to view the full article from the third link above, please just go to the cnn.com website and pull up that URL link, as cnn will allow only a couple of "freebies" per IP address at a time...and I'm over my quota!
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BTW, this article can also be accessed directly from the link in the last paragraph of the first link shown in Post #141.
 
The following article from CNN, posted back on March 1, 2025 (about the same time that this thread was started), goes right to the "core" of what this thread is about. It is interesting to contrast this with what has actually taken place in the two months since:

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/01/weather/noaa-weather-forecast-layoffs/index.html

Again, please look this up on your own computers to read the full article. RZ
 
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The following attachments are important CNN reports related to this thread from today (5/8/25) and May 6th, as NOAA, NWS and FEMA woes mount under the current administration:
 

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And the FEMA saga continues...

This article is a clipping from The Wall Street Journal newspaper on May 9th:
 

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This article appeared in The Wall Street Journal newspaper this weekend [May 17-18, 2025, edition], about FEMA and the upcoming hurricane season preparation. Not a pretty picture.

It would not surprise me to see an article or two in the coming days investigating staffing cuts at NWS offices (such as GLD) and rawinsonde reductions (at places like OMA and RAP) and their affect upon tornado/severe storm/flood warning issuance in all states affected by this weekend's tornado outbreak. If such an article appears, I'll be sure to post it here.
 

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Randy Zipser said:
This article appeared in The Wall Street Journal newspaper this weekend [May 17-18, 2025, edition], about FEMA and the upcoming hurricane season preparation. Not a pretty picture...
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This article basically ignores the abysmal state FEMA was in prior. Stating it is not ready now? -- well, how is that any different than say, last year?
Its absolutely deplorable handling Hurricane Helene victims? Bad management and redirecting of its funds elsewhere for non-citizens when our own citizens were suffering gravely post-Helene? Their argument squarely falls flat here concerning readiness.

The article states, "current capabilities have been derailed this year." When it wasn't "derailed," its performance was already sub-par, to say the
least.

And this statement, "we've got hurricanes, we've got fires, we've got mudslides, we've got flash floods, we've got tornadoes, we've got droughts,
we've got heat waves, and now we've got volcanoes to worry about." LIONS AND TIGERS AND BEARS, OH MY! Going on rant like this verbosely listing out all the hazards to increase the drama is intellectually lazy, and acting like volcanoes are a new "worry?" What, they didn't exist as a hazard before? Shameless "piling on" and crying poor mouth here.

The point is they are crying foul when they did it to themselves, filled with corruption and grift, among other things.

And FEMA's issues are not going to be addressed or fixed overnight. Withholding FEMA funds for disasters is not good I agree, but I can see why funds are being withheld b/c of the established corruption that has existed for some time, and those funds going elsewhere.

The current system is broken, so drastic action has to be taken to improve things. There is no easy solution short-term here, but one needs to think more long-term. In other words, taking hit short-term in order to fix things for the future, and perhaps a much better way to handle action and funding for disasters though other agencies, or some fusion between FEMA and other agencies, has merit.

Blaming the current administration for all of FEMA's woes is disingenuous and suggests agenda-driven. biased narrative/policy.
 
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