Katy Bar The Door, THIS One is About to Put on a Show: The U.S. Government’s Secret Service is Under Attack
As darkness descended on the Gulf of Mexico in October, a 1970s-era U.S. government turboprop plane neared the eye of the newly formed Hurricane Milton. When the plane’s first radar scan arrived by satellite communications, I pounced and took to the airwaves, describing to viewers what I saw inside the storm: a dreaded vortex alignment signaling the early stages of rapid intensification. On social media I put it more plainly: “Katy bar the door, this one’s about to put on a show.”
The strongest Gulf storm in 20 years was strengthened at a breathtaking rate over the next 24 hours to a 180-mile-per-hour Category 5 monster. But there was no October surprise on the Florida coast because we’d had ample warning from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s hurricane hunters — enough time for people in the highest-risk areas to safely evacuate and businesses to prepare for the worst.
The National Weather Service, the Hurricane Hunters, and many other programs essential to the forecast of hurricanes are being cut by the Trump administration and Department of Government Efficiency. Without the arsenal of tools from NOAA and its 6.3 billion observations sourced each day, the routinely detected hurricanes of today could become the deadly surprise hurricanes of tomorrow.
The National Weather Service costs the average American $4 per year in today’s inflated dollars — about the same as a gallon of milk — and offers an 8,000 percent annual return on investment, according to 2024 estimates. It’s a farce for the administration to pretend that gutting an agency that protects our coastlines from a rising tide of disasters is in the best interests of our economy or national security. The private sector could have done it better and cheaper, but it has not.
The 2016-2020 Atlantic Ocean hurricane season is coming to an end: Forecasts for June 1 and Nov. 30, according to AccuWeather
In 2024, there were 18 named Atlantic storms, and five hurricanes that made landfall in the U.S. Hurricane Helene killed more than 200 people in the southeastern US, and Hurricane Milton caused over $30 billion in damage when it wreaked havoc in southern Florida.
“We want people now to take the advantage of the opportunity to best prepare, both at the coast and then also well inland, where serious impacts from flooding and wind and tornadoes can occur as well as a tropical storm or hurricane moves inland,” Jon Porter, AccuWeather chief meteorologist, said in a video forecast on Friday.
June 1 marks the start of hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean. Forecasters are warning this year could once again bring an above-average number of storms. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting 13 to 19 named storms between June 1 and Nov. 30, compared with an average of 14 storms per year from 1991-2020.
“It takes only one storm near you to make this an active season for you,” professor Michael Bell, who leads Colorado State University’s Tropical Cyclones, Radar, Atmospheric Modeling, and Software Team, said in a statement.
Water related disasters can cause most deaths from hurricanes that make landfall, and even storms that don’t turn into hurricanes can cause deadly floods.
The National Weather Service, which is part of NOAA, has lost more than 500 workers through the cuts by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency and the departure of those who took the government’s early retirement offer.
LaMarre told Scott Simon on May 24 that he did not think the current situation was sustainable. There is a recipe for disaster if you have 122 offices and many are short-staffed.
