President Trump’s decision to slash staff and resources at the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Weather Service (NWS) is more than a mistake — it’s a threat to public safety.
The July 5 flash floods in Kerr County, Texas, should be a wake-up call. Up to 6.5 inches of rain fell in just three hours, causing the Guadalupe River to surge nearly 30 feet. Camps and homes were swept away in the middle of the night, killing scores of people — many of them children—and injuring or displacing hundreds more.
While NWS did issue warnings, they came too late for many. Survivors say the water was already at their doors before alerts even sounded. Why? Because Trump’s budget cuts have hollowed out NOAA — closing research labs, delaying upgrades to forecasting systems, and reducing the staff responsible for issuing these critical alerts.
This isn’t an isolated event. Flash floods are now the leading cause of storm-related deaths in the U.S. We need more resources for forecasting, not fewer. NOAA and NWS aren’t luxuries — they’re life-saving agencies, especially as extreme weather becomes the norm.
Gutting them in the name of “efficiency” is reckless and idiotic. You don’t save money by putting American lives at risk. If anything, these cuts will cost us more — in disaster relief, emergency services, and most tragically, in lives lost.
If President Trump truly wants to protect this country, he must reverse these dangerous cuts and reinvest in the agencies that keep us informed, prepared, and safe. Nature doesn’t care about politics. But science, staffing, and timely warnings can make the difference between survival and disaster.
Kim Fowler, Orem
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