Tornado warnings delayed because of DOGE cuts
28 comments
·May 18, 2025radnor
Jtsummers
Staffed, but not fully staffed. They worked around their staff shortages to make sure they had people working during the storm.
sanderjd
This seems entirely plausible, but I'm not sure this article successfully makes this connection with direct evidence. Has anyone seen anything on this with better evidence?
atotic
NYT mentioned NWS staffing shortage, but did not say this was connected to body count: "The office is also one of several left without an overnight forecaster, but on Friday, it stayed open and was sufficiently staffed for the night, issuing 11 tornado warnings. It was “all hands on deck,” Mr. Fahy said."
casefields
That's because no one can make that conclusion definitively yet. They want your brain to assume that connection. Conspiracy theorists are the kings at this psychological trick.
nisa
nytimes on the cuts in this area: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/weather/nws-cuts-kentucky...
0xEF
If you can and are willing, join Skywarn and help with weather spotting in your area.
You do not need a radio license as things can be called in by phone, too.
shepherdjerred
Part of me doesn’t feel too much sympathy. The majority of Americans voted for Trump. Even more so in the conservative states that are more likely to be impacted by there events.
Trump campaigned on cutting government services.
Everyone is okay with cutting a public service (at the expense of others) until they need that particular service
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To clarify, I'm not cheering on this disaster or hoping that those who voted for Trump "get what they deserve"
mullingitover
Not a majority of Americans, a plurality of voters. They won power, barely, but they don’t have a mandate.
arghandugh
Antipathy for the innocent and a pleasure in collateral suffering and death is a key tenet of conservatism. Maybe clean up your soul a bit.
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SoftMachine
[dead]
atomicnumber3
Unfortunately, a lot of liberals live in these states too. This entire country would be blue if we didn't have the electoral college.
But if you're in the mood for not feeling sympathy, because most cities have heat domes that tend to "push" storms away from them, storms tend to leave the more-liberal cities alone and instead wreak havoc through more rural towns.
shepherdjerred
To me, it's more of "play stupid games, win stupid prizes" situation
HideousKojima
>This entire country would be blue if we didn't have the electoral college.
And if immigration law hadn't been intentionally unenforced for the last 70 years the entire country would be red. What's your point?
fixprix
"Tornado warnings were delayed because of reduced staff." Source? How long was the delay?
Edit: Really? Downvote me for asking a super simple question? Sorry if I threaten the narrative.
Justsignedup
Right up top. The service for alerts no longer works 24/7 so this happened when they were down for their daily window. Therefore the cuts are directly responsible.
fixprix
Look I found a real source, not conjecture. How hard was that?
https://www.weku.org/the-commonwealth/2025-05-17/kentucky-nw...
JKCalhoun
Welcome to 2025, where we gather the family around a glowing laptop watching Ryan Hall Y'all and his YouTube channel telling us when it's time to take shelter.
klysm
But it’s interrupted by an ad break
jmclnx
Sadly anyone with a a half of a brain saw this coming. To add to this, FEMA cuts probably means these poor people will live through what Puerto Rico did when the island was wiped out years ago by that hurricane :(
I wish they could sue Trump and Musk personally for making dumb decisions.
HideousKojima
>FEMA cuts probably means these poor people will live through what Puerto Rico did when the island was wiped out years ago by that hurricane :(
Why didn't a well-funded FEMA prevent what happened in Puerto Rico?
viraptor
HideousKojima
>The FEMA report found that its warehouse in Puerto Rico was nearly empty when Hurricane Maria hit last September, without cots or tarps, and very low levels of food and water, as most of the supplies had been rerouted to the U.S. Virgin Islands following Hurricane Irma.
Yeah, so how did a massive agency with plenty of money (over $30 BILLION annually) not immediately begin work to restock their Puerto Rico warehouses immediately after some of the supplies were sent to help with hurricane Irma?
That's roughly $1.5 million per employee of FEMA, so they should have plenty of funds after personnel costs for buying and transporting whatever emergency supplies they need.
harimau777
HideousKojima
Doesn't cover the internal incompetence within FEMA (despite significant funding) nearly enough: https://www.npr.org/2018/07/13/628861808/fema-report-acknowl...
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pablowegw
[flagged]
Fortunately the Kentucky NWS office in Jackson was fully staffed during the recent events. It's still not staffed 24/7, but at least they bring in people when things inclement weather is occuring.
https://www.weku.org/the-commonwealth/2025-05-17/kentucky-nw...