In the Face of this Weekend’s Deadly Storms, Trump’s Cuts Are Making Us Less Safe
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Washington, D.C. — This weekend, severe storms killed at least 28 people across Kentucky, Missouri, and Virginia. Trump’s reckless cuts to disaster preparation and response are making us less safe in the face of extreme weather and deadly storms.
Climate Power communications director Alex Glass issued the following statement:
“As families across the country faced deadly storms, Trump recklessly gutted disaster preparation and response. Trump’s cuts have weakened our extreme weather forecasting, put lifesaving alerts at risk, and made it harder for communities to rebuild after disaster. As extreme weather increases this summer, Trump’s cuts will put more Americans in danger and lead to more devastated communities.”
Contact Climate Power at press@climatepower.us to talk to surrogates about how Trump’s cuts are making us less safe.
Trump’s cuts are making us less safe:
- Trump gutted NOAA and the National Weather Service, leaving nearly half of the weather forecast offices critically understaffed and 30 of the 122 (24.5%) offices lacking a meteorologist-in-charge.
- Because of severe understaffing, four NWS offices in California, Kentucky, and Kansas no longer operate 24 hours per day, curtailing extreme weather warnings. Another four offices across the country planned to close overnight.
- Because of Trump’s massive cuts, NWS eliminated or reduced vital weather balloon launches, which degraded forecasts during previous storms.
- Trump cut disaster-response training for local and state emergency managers.
- Trump eliminated door-to-door canvassing in disaster areas by federal relief workers.
- Trump gutted disaster relief, cutting roughly 20% of the staff responsible for preventing and responding to disasters.
- Trump wants to make it harder for communities to receive federal disaster aid.
- Trump gutted federal aid for communities to prepare for disasters.
- Trump ended the tracking of the most costly extreme weather events – those that cause over $1 billion in damage.