In the case of hurricanes like Helene, federal agencies are in place before and after the storm.
Before the storm, the National Weather Service and National Hurricane Center are sending watches and warnings to areas that could be impacted by the storm.
Using the data, the Federal Emergency Management Agency mobilizes to have team members on the ground to immediately respond to the needs of people and towns decimated by wind and water.
The advance warnings also help local and state officials make decisions about mandatory or recommended evacuations, make emergency declarations to mobilize the National Guard and give homeowners and business owners information to help them best prepare for severe weather.
ICYMI: Donald Trump and FEMA
After storms like Helene, the federal response teams are in the air and on the ground ensuring residents have essentials like food and water. In storm-ravaged cities like Asheville, N.C., the immediate actions of these agencies help prevent additional deaths from starvation or dehydration.
Imagine if the preparation or response wasn’t handled by the government but instead left to for-profit entities who would make decisions based on what was financially lucrative for them.
Imagine if business owners and home owners were left with the burden of rebuilding entire cities without federal help.
While politics shouldn’t play a role in natural disasters, it unfortunately does, as former president Donald Trump appears ready to shut down any mention of climate change by eliminating federal agencies who he says perpetuate its myth.
Trump has suggested abolishing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration which is the parent agency of the National Weather Service and National Hurricane Center and suggested these organizations could be privatized.
“The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) should be dismantled and many of its functions eliminated, sent to other agencies, privatized, or placed under the control of states and territories,” reads the Project 2025 agenda meant to guide the conservative president’s next term in office if re-elected.
“Together, these form a colossal operation that has become one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future US prosperity,” the document says.
Climate change aside, the NOAA is responsible for sending out warnings to the public in the event of extreme weather. If it was privatized, the warnings could be eliminated if they weren’t profitable, meaning millions of people may no longer receive critical information when a tornado or derecho or other weather-related event was imminent.
“If you leave it to the private sector, we wouldn’t have the assurances that forecasts were being made in the best interests of the wider public,” said Jesse Keenan, an expert in climate adaptation at Tulane University, in an article in The Guardian.
Trump’s plan also suggests gutting FEMA and leaving rebuilding efforts to private insurers guaranteeing more costs and burdens on home and business owners.
The grants available through the Small Business Administration for emergencies involving businesses would also go away under Project 2025 leaving owners to fend for themselves in the event of a weather-related disaster.
While the Trump campaign doesn’t believe in climate change, it did cancel two events planned for his VP running mate JD Vance due to Hurricane Helene.
“Vance and Trump can run from a storm, but they can’t hide from the reality of the climate crisis they continue to deny,” said Cassidy DiPaola, a campaigner at the Make Polluters Pay Campaign in an article in The Guardian.
Scientific data proves that the intensity of storms like Helene are rapidly increasing due to record-breaking temperatures caused by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Studies show that storms of this nature have increased by intensity 30 percent since the 1990s resulting in more Category 4 and 5 hurricanes.
The temperatures are warming the ocean and fueling hurricanes as they prepare to make landfall and creating dangerous conditions for the Atlantic coastline.
“The anomalously high precipitation linked to Hurricane Helene can be partially attributed to a warming atmosphere, which has an enhanced ability to retain moisture,” said Manoochehr Shirzaei, an associate professor of geophysics at Virginia Tech. “Both observational data and climate models suggest that the frequency and intensity of extreme precipitation events have been increasing and are projected to continue rising.
“This trend underscores the pressing need for adaptive strategies to mitigate the impacts of these intensified weather extremes, reflecting the broader global challenge of climate change.
“Legacy systems, including levees, dams, bridges, roads and electrical grids, were not originally designed to endure the growing severity of hurricanes exacerbated by climate change,” Shirzaei said.
Like states banning books or removing racial injustice curriculum from textbooks, Trump is looking to change the conversation on climate change, science be damned.
Trump believes climate change is “one of the greatest scams of all time,” and we’re told we should believe him because he is the supposedly the smartest person in the room.
In his own words, he’s “like, a really smart person.”
“I was a good student. I comprehend very well, okay, better than I think almost anybody.
“Trust me, I’m like a smart person.”
People who previously worked with Trump disagree.
- Defense Secretary Jim Mattis: Trump had the understanding of “a fifth- or sixth-grader.”
- Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, former chief of staff Reince Priebus and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly: Have called Trump an “idiot”
- Former economic adviser Gary Cohn: Trump was “dumb as shit”
- Former national security adviser H.R. McMaster: Trump had intelligence of a “kindergartner”
- Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon: Trump was “like an 11-year-old child”
- Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson: Trump is a “f***ing moron”
- White House deputy chief of staff Katie Walsh: Working with Trump is “like trying to figure out what a child wants”
Without FEMA and other federal agencies, people in areas like Asheville, N.C., in the aftermath of storms like Helene, would be left on their own, without 200 years of experience from FEMA, to help them rebuild. All because Trump and his Project 2025 allies believe climate change is a “hoax” – despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
“It’s just one example of how dangerous, deadly, and disastrous Project 2025 would be if implemented,” Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, told HuffPost.
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Crystal Graham
