Vermont, Many Other States Losing Millions That Would Have Mitigated Future Disasters

Flooded homes in Richmond, Vermont, July, 2023. FEMA
is getting rid of funding nationwide that would help
states like Vermont and many others build resilience and
protection from the next inevitable 
climate-related disasters 

The frequency at which we here in Vermont have had destructive floods in recent years almost makes it seem like we're overdue for another big disaster. 

Thankfully, there's nothing even close to that is in the immediate forecast, but with climate change, future mega-rainstorms and extreme flash floods are inevitable. 

There's been a wise and understandable push to build resilience to future disasters here in Vermont and in so many other places around the nation. 

Predictably, the Turnip Trump administration doesn't think resilience is a good idea because A: They believe climate change is a hoax despite the Everest-sized mountain of evidence suggesting otherwise, and B: This resilience stuff would just benefit us "rubes" that don't matter and won't  further line the pockets of our Glorious Billionaires.  

Reports Vermont Public: 

"The Trump administration announced last week that it's canceling a disaster preparedness program administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Stephanie Smith, the state Hazard Mitigation Officer, said Vermont will lose out on the $2 million it received annually from the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities fund.

She said the cancelation will also affect $2.7 million in funding that FEMA had awarded to about 40 projects in past years but had not yet been paid out."

Before Trump, we did receive quite a bit of money to help gird against future disasters.

Per Vermont Public: 

"Over the past five years, FEMA's so called BRIC program has allocated about $200 million annually for hazard mitigation projects such as flood control, infrastructure improvements and stream bank stabilization. Smith said most municipalities in Vermont have used the money to update local hazard mitigation plans and conduct scoping studies."

BRIC, of course is, or was, a national program.  It had made more than $5 billion available since 2020 to  help local projects that reduce the impact of disasters, reports the Washington Post. 

The elimination of this program is part of a broader Trump policy of shifting disaster recovery and preparation from the federal government to the states, which of course are often ill-prepared to cover the cost of these huge floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires and such. 

Per the Washington Post:

"'For small states, like Vermont and Wyoming, there's very little capability, especially at the local level,' said Erica Bornemann, who served as Vermont's emergency management director for 16 years and now works in disaster consulting. 

'It would take time for them not only to hire and fund the people necessary to respond to small to moderate scale disasters, but also to build a fund to support disaster survivors,' she said."

Predictably, the Trump FEMA people are dismissive of the idea of preparing for future disasters.

Says Vermont Public: 

"A spokesperson for FEMA said in a statement that the BRIC program was 'yet another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program."

Because spending, say,  $1 to prevent $100 in future damage is supremely stupid, apparently.

The Trump team and FEMA have reported already discussed disbanding the agency by as early as October 1, which would basically leave state and local government adrift if and when disaster strikes.

Moreover,  millions of dollars in already allocated FEMA funding has been frozen since January. Again, per Washington Post:

"Although a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to release the funds, at least 19 states have not been able to access the money, according to a filing last week by a coalition of 24 states, including those hit recently by major disasters such as California, North Carolina, Kentucky and Hawaii. On Friday, a federal judge ruled the administration has violated his order by freezing the FEMA grants."

But, under Trump the rule of law is now more, He just blithely ignores court orders, as nobody seems to have the spine to contradict him for some reason.

We're at the height of tornado season now. Devastating flash floods tend to increase in the spring and summer, wildfire season will get roaring soon, and a few months, hurricane season hits in earnest. 

Climate change or not, there will be terrible weather disasters sooner rather than later. Most likely sooner. Trump has already abandoned the storm victims he pledged to help during his campaign. And he will continue to abandon people who will fall victim to storms. 

The result will be extra heartache, financial ruin, homelessness and probably many needless deaths. 

But like I said, Trump couldn't care less about "rubes" like us.  Makes you wonder why so many people voted for him. 

 

More Bad News, And A Glimmers Of Good News, Regarding Foolish Trump NOAA Job Cutbacks

Bad consequences are starting to emerge
from the Trump administration's firing
of hundreds of NOAA employees.

The Trump administration's destruction of NOAA and the National Weather Service, along with so many other necessary federal entities, continues apace.  

Obviously, we'll focus on NOAA and other weather and climate entities here, since that's the subject of this here blog thingy, so we'll give whatever updates we can.

I'm saying "whatever updates we can," because everything the Trump administration is doing is chaotic, on again, off again, just going along with the whims of the moment. 

Kind of like a regular weather forecast, what will happen next with Trump and Elon Musk and NOAA and NWS is subject to change. But of course more unpredictable than the weather. 

Speaking of which, I have more evidence that the weather itself will get more unpredictable, thanks to some emerging practical effects of the government slashing. 

The National Weather Service offices in Albany, New York and Gray, Maine this past week announced they are suspending some weather balloon launches due to lack of staff. 

Usually, the National Weather Service launches weather balloons twice a day from 100 sites. These balloon launches take detailed weather measurements through multiple layers of the atmosphere. This data is fed into the computer models that guide weather forecasts.

The fewer balloon launches, the less data goes in, so the accuracy of the computer forecasts goes downhill. 

Meteorologist Mallory Brooke, writing on Facebook, explained it this way. 

"Weather balloon launches are critical in understanding what's happening in the atmosphere. Weather isn't created on the ground, it's above our heads! These cuts will have huge implications on forecasting, data accuracy, reliability, and ultimately knowledge of what's coming our way. AI *cannot*  replace this --- this is the core of how our computer models are initialized and run. 

It's like trying to bake a cake but you're going to guess what temperatures to set the oven at. Doesn't usually work out well. These are sad days for the science community as a whole."

Balloon launches were previously canceled up in Alaska, which is bad because there's already a dearth of data from the far north, which is often a weakness in computer models, This will just make it worse. 

MORE FIRINGS CONFUSION/FEARS

There's been conflicting reports of whether some NOAA employees that were fired under Elon Musk's DOGE hatchet firings were reinstated or not.

An unknown number of some probationary employees -  individuals who have worked for their federal agency for less than year - have been reinstated. For instance, three meteorologists let go from the Boise, Idaho National Weather Service office reportedly have their jobs back. 

Also, the building housing the National Weather Center in Norman, Oklahoma appears to be off the closing list, at least for now. The center is a hub for weather research, forecasting and supercomputers that house crucial computer model data. 

Meanwhile, there are reports that more NOAA firings are in the offing. 

Details are emerging about the kind of forecasting and disaster services and activities going away because of the cutbacks

Hurricane Hunters

Included in the chaotic firings appears to be a group of hurricane researchers, two hurricane hunter flight directors and an engineer. 

The hurricane hunter cutbacks are concerning to say the least. These are the seemingly crazy people who fly planes into hurricanes. Their work is invaluable. The dense data the collect from flying into these storms are critical in helping forecast where the storm is going and how strong it will get.

As we learned from Hurricane Helene and Milton last year, and from countless other hurricanes, knowing as precisely as possible where they will hit and at what intensity is essential for getting people out of harm's way, stacking resources in advance where you will need them, and accurately warning the public about what's to come. 

The cutbacks in hurricane experts threatens to diminish the accuracy of the hurricane forecasts. Even if you don't care about human life, and just care about financial responsibility. these firings do not make sense. 

Inaccurate forecasts mean that coming up, people who should have been warned to get out of the way weren't, and people who were warned of an impending hurricane and fled would do so unnecessarily, as the storm went off in a different direction, due to bad forecasting. 

Fired federal hurricane researchers had also been working on improving forecasting models.  So better forecast accuracy is once again out the window. 

I guess Elon Musk is rich enough to avoid danger from hurricanes. The little people who would bear the brunt of these storms don't really matter, do they?

FEMA AND WILDFIRES

It's already been a busy year for wildfires, with that mega firestorm in Los Angeles in January. Plus other wildfires in Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina, South Dakota, North Dakota, New York and other states already. 

You'd want well-trained crews to fight these fires. But that's not on the Trump agenda either, apparently. 

The National Fire Academy, the nations pre-eminent federal fire training center, has canceled its wildfire training courses as amid what it announced was the "process of evaluating agency programs and spending alignment with Administration priorities," the Associated Press reported.

In other words, battling wildfires and saving lives and property is not a Trump administration priority. Good to know. 

Wildfire training was set to begin next week.  People already had their plane tickets ready to go to this thing.  Maybe we can get Donald Trump and Elon Musk to rake the forests so that we won't have any wildfires?

I dunno.