A Virtual Church

Yes, FEMA, there is a hurricane season

Yesterday

Dan Richardson, acting director of FEMA, exited a meeting of his team “baffled” after he had been told about hurricane season. He had no idea. Go figure.

We in the Southeastern quadrant of the United States have been aware of hurricane season all our lives. We know the story of the first colony being swept away by a massive storm. From Manteo to Galveston, beyond and in between, we can name the storms.

Hazel is the first one I remember. Dianne and Dione. Andrew, in Florida. Katrina, in Louisiana. Last year Helene swept homes away in the mountains of North Carolina. These storms have become the stuff of story, as we remember lives lost and property destroyed.

That a person in one of the biggest jobs in the country was ignorant of this fact is ludicrous. It’s also dangerous.

The Physical Geography course I took at Meredith College gave me great appreciation of the Science of Meteorology. Mr. Birken taught the summer school class that was one of the more valuable I ever took. By the end of the class, I could read the maps from the National Weather Service. I could look at the clouds thunder heading and turning gray with moisture and could make an educated guess about what the weather would be.

Mountains, prevalent winds, currents, and warming waters impact weather. Knowing water temperatures, wind speeds, and barometric pressures help keep us safe. Science is necessary to more accurately predict when and where weather changes will make a difference in how and where we live our lives.

There are other weather seasons across the country. Mr. FEMA needs to know about these too. Tornado season in the Plains. Fire season in the Northwestern quadrant. The changing climate makes it more important that we have meteorological scientists and sophisticated instruments, like radar, to give us warning when danger is coming.

The National Weather Service is being gutted, NOAA is stripped of personnel who send up and receive weather balloon information. Hurricane trackers in airplanes that fly through the eye of the storm to keep us posted of barometric pressure and whether the storm is getting stronger or weaker will be cut also.

FEMA itself may be shuttered at the end of the 2025 hurricane season.

Cutting necessary services that keep Americans informed and aware of dangers will leave us vulnerable to the ravages of wind, water, fire and rain.

Dr. John Morales and Bill Cairns, meteorologists in Florida, have made statements on national television saying that funding cuts of research and data will make it almost impossible to track storms accurately and give warning as to the direction and force of the storm. They don’t want the public thinking they are the ones failing in weather prediction. The two scientists said China, Europe, and other countries will fill the void with data as they can. Nothing has been as reliable as weather forecasting from NOAA or the National Weather Service.

I guess this means Jim Cantore won’t know where to locate as he covers the storms for the Weather Center.

Ignorance will never keep us safer. Incompetence, carelessness, and recklessness are wreaking havoc in a science that has benefited all of us the last 75 years.

In the 1950s, ham radio operators in Ocracoke and Manteo gave us a heads up about Hurricane Hazel. Daddy and my brother listened to ham operators all night. Ears wide open for news of wind speeds, wave heights and damage. I remember a long night as the trees in my hometown, well inland, cracked and fell all over town.

Bad weather is frightening and scary. Without warnings we feel naked and vulnerable. Not that science is perfect, but it surely beats the unknown.

Scientists had a huge role in the execution of the D-Day Operation 80 years ago. The first two soldiers who hit the beach were geologists. They came under cover of night to do depth readings, evaluate the sand and scout the beaches of Normandy to see what would support the troops and equipment used in the invasion. Without these scientists, D-Day may have had a different outcome.

Meteorologists were also on the job. Even without satellites, radar and computers, they concluded the weather would be more favorable for a successful mission on June 6, rather than the originally proposed June 5th. Once again, science made the difference.

Harm in the Trump.2 administration is taking many shapes. Cutting the legs out from under science and research will create increasing pain. When America loses its edge in science, we all lose.

Many right-wing media outlets are deluding what I believe is a gullible public. But when the water is up to your neck and the fire is in your back ward, you might think otherwise.

Yes, FEMA there is a hurricane season.

Lib Campbell is a retired Methodist pastor, retreat leader, columnist and host of the blogsite www.avirtualchurch.com. She can be contacted at libcam05@gmail.com 

 

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