Washington’s U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell recently sent an urgent letter to President Donald Trump, calling on him to set aside partisan animosity and act quickly to prepare the nation for a new, rapidly worsening pattern of catastrophic weather. He should heed Cantwell’s call to action.
The July 4 floods in Texas that killed more than 130 people were no aberration. Cantwell noted that the United States averaged 23 extreme weather events annually over the past five years, each costing more than $1 billion. The historic annual average had been only nine extreme weather events.
Cantwell, who is the ranking member of the Senate committee that oversees the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Weather Service (NWS), is exhibiting leadership America desperately needs right now. The Democrat is building partnerships across the aisle to co-sponsor legislation to ensure NOAA and NWS have the funding and staff needed to “provide Americans with much more detailed and customized alerts days, instead of minutes, ahead of a looming extreme weather event.”
Such preparation is critical here in Washington, where mudslides, wildfires and other weather events have pushed the state into the Top 10 nationally for natural disaster declarations.
In her letter and recent appearances on CBS and CNN, Cantwell presented five key recommendations. She’s enlisted Republicans such as Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on some of the measures, but greater bipartisan support — and the president’s backing — are needed.
Her recommendations include replacing the analog Doppler radar system from the 1980s and Hurricane Hunter aircraft in service since the 1970s. Modern technology can improve the performance of data-collection systems as well as weather satellites, ocean buoys and other tools.
She also calls for greater use of supercomputers to bring U.S. forecasting abilities to the same level as Europe’s highly advanced, more accurate modeling. Modernizing the nation’s alert systems, which performed poorly in Texas, and providing better funding for advanced research are also imperative.
The Trump administration has been going the other direction. Trump’s proposed budget would slash NOAA funding by $2.2 billion — a 27% cut. That is in addition to more than 2,000 job losses at the agency since January, including many at Seattle’s NOAA Fisheries and NWS offices. America needs him to reverse course.
Extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and intensity. That is undeniable. Republicans and Democrats needn’t agree on the causes to cooperate on making the nation as weather-ready as possible.
