President Trump's administration is moving forward with budget and staff cuts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Those cuts could at NOAA trickle down to the National Hurricane Center. However, the White House and NOAA officials are keeping mum about any impacts felt by the NHC.
Experts say if cuts are made to the hurricane center, the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts will experience dire consequences come hurricane season.
"Thousands of lives would definitely be at risk with cuts to the workforce to the National Hurricane Center," LSU Health climatologist Barry Keim said. "Any cuts to (the National Hurricane Center's) mission makes the nation more vulnerable to these storms."
That's because the staff at the National Hurricane Center is tasked with not only forecasting storms, but also maintaining the satellites and other sophisticated technology that tracks tropical systems. According to published reports, NOAA has already dismissed forecasters who write code to make forecast models more accurate, adversely impacting storm forecasting.
"The place is staffed with some of the best hurricane forecasters in the world, and it's not a big group to begin with," Keim said. "It's some of the best-trained folks who have been doing this, in many cases, for many decades, and they're great at it. The forecasting keeps getting better and better and better. It's undoubtedly saving lives. Backing off on that workforce is distressing and very concerning, and the general public should be very concerned about this."
Keim says the National Hurricane Center is already short on personnel. Furthermore, Keim says the NOAA cuts will impact the hurricane center's ability to fly planes into tropical cyclones. That, Keim says, would make hurricane forecasting worse because those flights gather data that initialize hurricane forecast models. Keim says any further cuts could lead to devastation if a hurricane forms and threatens the Atlantic or Gulf Coast.
"We've taken over 100 years of breakthroughs and our understanding, and we've gotten pretty good at this, and I would hate to see us dialing that back," Keim said. "Any cuts in that particular realm could be absolutely devastating to the safety of our nation moving forward."
Keim says the National Hurricane Center must fulfill its mission of keeping the United States safe and informed during tropical events.
"It's saving a whole lot of lives, and it would be a crying shame if it takes significant cuts," Keim said.
