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| The National Weather Service was created to protect people and property. (NOAA graphic) |
On any given day, the National Weather Service deploys staff to research, predict and issue warnings for weather activity across the United States, which covers a total of roughly 3.8 million square miles. However, after losing 600 employees this spring, the agency is now stretched thin and may struggle to meet the demands of fall weather, which includes a busy hurricane season.
"Exhausted employees have maintained weather monitoring and forecasting almost without interruption, staff said. But many are wondering how much longer they can keep it up," report Hannah Natanson and Brady Dennis of The Washington Post.
Despite receiving an exemption from the federal hiring freeze and working to replace lost staff, the agency still has hundreds of vacant positions, an active Atlantic hurricane season, and a possible government shutdown to manage.
Tom Fahy, legislative director for the National Weather Service Employees Organization, the union that represents the agency’s workers, told the Post, "We have a strained and severely stretched situation. . . .There’s a breaking point.”
A spokesperson for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration offered reassurances that the Weather Service is “'equipped to meet its mission of protecting American lives and property through timely forecasts and critical decision support services,'" the Post reports. "But even before this year’s losses, the Weather Service was considered understaffed."
Since NWS shortages have been extreme, the Trump administration gave the agency permission to "list and hire 450 positions," Natanson and Dennis add. "But it won’t be an immediate fix. . . . Federal hiring is often slow. . . .Government work may seem like a bad option, since Trump has stripped away the guaranteed job stability that once made up for the lower pay."
from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/pEN92Rf National Weather Service has hundreds of vacancies, 'exhausted employees' - Entrepreneur Generations
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