Opinion on a season like a Hurricane

Katy Bar The Door, This One is About To Put on a Show: The U.S. Government Takes the Lead on Hurricane Milton

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.”

And Milton did just that, strengthening at a breathtaking rate over the next 24 hours to a 180-mile-per-hour Category 5 monster, the strongest Gulf hurricane in almost 20 years. There was no surprise in October because we had plenty of time to prepare and safely evacuate, thanks to the fact that the National Hurricane hunter teams were out in full force.

In May, the Secretary of Commerce claimed that the NWS was using “cutting-edge Hurricane tracking systems to provide Americans with real-time storm forecasts and warnings.” He added: “With these models and forecasting tools, we have never been more prepared for hurricane season.” The Department of Commerce is a part of NOAA.

The National Weather service costs about the same amount as a gallon of milk, and has an 8,000 percent annual return on investment, according to 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. If the private sector could have done it better and cheaper, it would have, and it hasn’t.

Hurricanes and Hurricanes in the U.S. from June 1 to Nov. 30, 2024: Hurricane Florence, Hurricane Milton, Hurricane Helene, and the Associated Tropical Storms

In 2024, there were 18 named Atlantic storms, and five hurricanes that made landfall in the U.S. That included Hurricane Helene, which killed more than 200 people and caused devastating flooding across the southeastern U.S., and Hurricane Milton, whose storm surge and accompanying tornadoes in southern Florida caused $34.3 billion in damage, according to NOAA.

“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. The forecasters think this could be an above-average year for 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.

“Hurricanes can have significant inland impacts,” Michael Brennan, director of NOAA’s National Hurricane Center, said at a press conference on Friday. “It’s important to get the message out to the people of inland communities, because the cause of deaths from freshwater flooding has been a significant source of deaths in recent years.”

The National Weather Service has lost more than 500 employees through the cuts by the Department of Government Efficiency and the decision by some workers to take government offers to retire early.

On May 24th, LaMarre told Scott Simon that he doesn’t think the current situation is sustainable. “When you have 122 offices and many of them are short-staffed, there is a recipe for disaster.”