Every summer brings the familiar joys of sunny weather, family barbecues and beach vacations. But for Americans on the Gulf or Atlantic coasts, the daily weather forecast always comes with a constant thrum of worry — any small disturbance in the Atlantic has the potential to evolve into a major storm.
And as hurricane season gets underway, the palace intrigue, staffing cuts and general upheaval of the Trump administration could have dire effects for people on these coasts.
We know hurricanes all too well. I was still in elementary school when we had to evacuate for Ivan and fret over Dennis in my small northwest Florida hometown. And I was in middle school in 2006, when refugees from Katrina were still pouring into my school district to enroll in my class — since their schools no longer existed.
I was in college at Louisiana State University when torrential rains flooded Baton Rouge in 2016. And just one year later, Hurricane Harvey stalled over southwest Louisiana, causing catastrophic flooding in that corner of the state.
I’m no stranger to natural disasters, and that’s exactly why I felt called to spend my career at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — one of many federal agencies that work together to both predict hurricanes and repair the damage when one strikes.
Each hurricane can feel like an act of God. Why this storm? Why now? Why my town, and why me? The longer I worked at NOAA, the more I came to appreciate how many experts work together to predict these storms and respond to them.
I wasn’t a storm chaser or a hurricane expert. I managed the budget for a major coastal wetland restoration program called the Coastal Wetland Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act.
CWPPRA is a piece of legislation spearheaded back in 1990 by Sen. John Breaux of Louisiana. Five federal agencies work together to implement CWPPRA projects that build back land along Louisiana’s coastline, and NOAA alone has already restored 14,000 acres of coastal land since the law was passed 35 years ago.
Some of NOAA’s restoration projects protect the shrimp fisheries that are vital to Louisiana’s economy. Others restore habitats for migratory birds as they pass through Louisiana on their long journeys north or south. Some reinforce levees to protect crucial hurricane evacuation routes. And others still restore land that was lost in Hurricane Katrina.
It’s hard to overstate what a great investment coastal restoration is. Dozens of other government employees and I worked hard every day to design effective projects and get money out the door so that local Louisiana businesses could build land on what used to be open water.
At first glance, it might seem like my program has nothing to do with hurricane preparedness. But as any Southerner knows about hurricanes, the further inland you are, the safer you are.
That land protects every Louisianan, especially the poorest residents who are least likely to evacuate when a storm makes landfall, and most likely to suffer the consequences. And when Louisiana is protected from storm damage, that’s money FEMA doesn’t have to spend to rebuild destroyed schools, homes and highways.
But unfortunately, NOAA — and the CWPPRA program specifically — is among the victims of this administration’s slash-and-burn tactics. And I’m one of thousands of NOAA employees who’ve lost their jobs since the president took office in January.
Without my financial expertise, money isn’t getting out the door to rebuild South Louisiana. Cuts to FEMA loom on the horizon. And soon, hurricane season will ramp up ferociously. I worry about my hometown in Florida, the people of South Louisiana and everyone in states affected by hurricanes.
It’s not too late to protect the federal workers who remain in their roles working on hurricane preparedness. Much of the damage from hurricanes this summer can be restored, but you can’t bring back the dead.
Sabrina B. Valenti is a Florida native and Louisiana State University graduate who has spent her career working in government budgeting and finance. This op-ed was distributed by OtherWords.org. Banner image: Hurricane Katrina imaged by NOAA-16 AVHRR instrument. (NOAA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons).
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