At 9:45 p.m. May 4, 2007, an EF5 tornado hit Greensburg , Kansas, destroying the town and killing 12 people.. This photo, taken three days later, shows typical damage. (Max McCoy/Kansas Reflector)
Bad weather doesn性视界传媒檛 keep business hours.
Of the that have wreaked death and destruction in Kansas, most came near or after dark, according to the National Weather Service. The Udall tornado of 1955 struck at 10:15 pm and killed 80, making it the deadliest twister in state history.
That性视界传媒檚 why the National Weather Service性视界传媒檚 closing of the Goodland forecast office overnight is so alarming. Goodland is among that had reduced their hours, or were planning to, because of the Trump administration性视界传媒檚 cuts to the federal government. Staffing at the NWS has taken a beating under DOGE, according to by the Washington Post. In an open letter, five former NWS directors warned the cuts may
The Goodland office serves northwest Kansas and parts of Nebraska and Colorado. About 17 miles from the Colorado border on I-70, severe weather around Goodland ranges from tornado-producing spring storms to winter blizzards that shut down the interstate.
But it性视界传媒檚 not just the Goodland County Warning Area, a 21,000-square-mile region with more than 80,000 people, that性视界传媒檚 at risk. Understaffing at Goodland and other forecast offices that have curtailed hours, including Wyoming and California, creates an additional burden for meteorologists at fully staffed locations. Somebody has to keep an eye on the weather, because the NWS is the federal agency for issuing advisories, watches, and warnings.
If you live in Tornado Alley, you know how essential those warnings can be. The alley is a broad swatch of the Great Plains, from Texas to South Dakota, where dry cold air from the northwest collides with warm moist air from the south. Kansans are familiar with the feeling along about dusk when conditions are ripe for a twister. The sky turns a peculiar shade of green, a thunderstorm approaches and the air smells like river water.
A public affairs specialist for the NWS at Silver Springs, Maryland, did not respond to a request for comment by deadline. Specifically, the spokesperson was asked if the Goodland office would remain closed overnight, and whether that represented a threat to public safety.
While the NWS did not respond, a spokesman for the union that represents federal weather service workers said there was no immediate crisis. Meteorologists at other regional forecast offices had agreed to keep an eye on the weather while the Goodland office was closed overnight. But, he said, a 20% reduction in forecast office staffing since Trump took his second oath of office poses a long-term threat.
性视界传媒淭here is no question that the public safety for the community is at risk,性视界传媒 said Tom Fahy, legislative director of the National Weather Service Employees Organization. 性视界传媒(The workers) have done everything they can to shore up the holes and come up with a work flow schedule that will allow individuals not to be burned out.性视界传媒
Weather service employees are dedicated, hard-working individuals, he said, who take their mission to protect lives and property seriously.
The Goodland is among the two worst hit of the 122 forecast offices in the nation, Fahy said. Goodland normally has 13 meteorologists, but because of DOGE cuts and a federal hiring freeze imposed in January, is down to just five. It ties with a forecast station in Hanford, California, as the most understaffed.
While we are at the tail end of what is usually thought of as tornado season, May through early June, the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory at Norman, Oklahoma, cautions that twisters are unpredictable. They can come at any time of the year, at any time of the day, and meteorologists still aren性视界传媒檛 sure what causes them.
性视界传媒淭he truth is that we don性视界传媒檛 fully understand,性视界传媒 according to the Severe Storms Laboratory 性视界传媒淭he most destructive tornadoes occur from supercells, which are rotating thunderstorms with a well-defined radar circulation called a mesocyclone. (Supercells can also produce damaging hail, severe non-tornadic winds, frequent lightning, and flash floods.)性视界传媒
While I性视界传媒檝e seen scores of small twisters form, touch down, and spin themselves away within a few minutes, I性视界传媒檝e never spotted a really large tornado. These storms are measured by the Enhanced Fujita Scale, from 0 to 5, based on estimates of observed damage. A common EF0 has wind gusts up to 85 mph and produces little damage. A rare EF5 has wind speeds of more than 200 mph and produces damage. The tornado that struck Udall in 1955 was an EF5. So was the Greensburg twister of 2007 and the Joplin, Missouri, tornado of May 2011, a storm that killed 158 people and demolished a third of the town.
I witnessed the aftermaths of the Greensburg and Joplin tornadoes in my capacity as a journalist, and the devastation of each was nightmare-like. In Greensburg, houses were turned to kindling and schools were reduced to piles of bricks. Trees were snapped off at about 10 or 12 feet, as if somebody had driven a giant lawnmower across town.
At Joplin, there was similar destruction, and the neighborhood where my grandfather性视界传媒檚 house had stood was unrecognizable. The area looked like it had been shredded by a buzzsaw and then flattened. The human suffering across town was on a massive scale that night, with bodies in the streets and survivors sitting on curbs wearing trash bags as their only defense against the rain. I性视界传媒檝e never taken a roof over my head for granted since.
The Greensburg tornado was a two-mile wide EF5 that blew up from the southwest. The National Weather Service issued a for Greensburg at 9:19 p.m. The storm hit Greensburg dead-center at 9:45, destroying homes and businesses, or about nine-tenths of the town. The response by the Federal Emergency Management Agency required 15 federal entities, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Now, cuts to the weather service by DOGE in the name of governmental 性视界传媒渆fficiency性视界传媒 threaten to cripple the weather alert warning systems that saved untold lives in Greensburg. There was no such warning system in 1955 for Udall, and that性视界传媒檚 one of the reasons that casualties were so high. To decrease the number of staff available for weather forecast offices in the name of efficiency is like reducing the number of life preservers on an ocean liner to save space.
But the explanation that DOGE is out to improve government by making it smaller and more effective is a canard. The real reason the NWS and other federal agencies are being kneecapped is to punish federal workers, dismantle the machinery of government, and achieve a long-cherished dream of , an economic philosophy from 1938. Don性视界传媒檛 let the name fool you, because there性视界传媒檚 nothing liberal or progressive about it.
Never heard of it?
Allow me a few paragraphs to explain.
性视界传媒淚ts anonymity is both a symptom and a cause of its power,性视界传媒 write George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison in their on neoliberalism. 性视界传媒淚t has caused or contributed to most of the crises that now confront us: rising inequality; rampant child poverty; epidemic diseases of despair; off-shoring and the erosion of the tax base; the slow degradation of healthcare, education, and other public services; the crumbling of the infrastructure; democratic backsliding; the 2008 financial crash; the rise of modern-day demagogues, such as Viktor Orban, Narendra Modi, Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, and Jair Bolsonaro; our ecological crises and environmental disasters.性视界传媒
Neoliberalism, according to Monbiot and Hutchison, is an ideology whose central belief is that competition is humanity性视界传媒檚 defining feature, but that our greed and selfishness and the free market will lead to social advances. The term 性视界传媒渘eoliberal性视界传媒 was coined at a conference in Paris in 1938, but it性视界传媒檚 been around since at least 1776, when Adam Smith used the metaphor of the in his
Put another way, think of Gordon Gekko in Oliver Stone性视界传媒檚 1987 movie In the movie, Gekko 性视界传媒 played by Michael Douglas 性视界传媒 says greed is Gekko性视界传媒檚 soliloquy of nearly 40 years ago sounds disturbingly modern.
性视界传媒淎merica has become a second-rate power,性视界传媒 性视界传媒淚ts trade deficit and its fiscal deficit are at nightmare proportions. Now in the days of the free market when our country was a top industrial power, there was accountability to the stockholder. 性视界传媒 The point is, ladies and gentleman, is that greed, for lack of a better word, is good.性视界传媒
Greed, according to Gekko, will save that 性视界传媒渕alfunctioning corporation性视界传媒 called the USA.
What does this have to do with the National Weather Service?
Everything.
The DOGE cuts aren性视界传媒檛 meant merely to make the federal government smaller, but also to make certain sectors of it ripe for privatization. The transfer of public sector assets to private companies is a long-held neoliberal tenet. And the privatization of the National Weather Service is an unambiguously stated goal of , the right-wing playbook for the second Trump administration.
Juan Declet-Barreto, a senior social scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, argued in a that privatizing the weather service would result in the greatest harm to those who are the least able to pay for critical warning information.
性视界传媒淧ublic services exist to provide parity in access to all people in society without regard to their ability to individually fork out money for such a service,性视界传媒 Declet-Barreto wrote, 性视界传媒渟o those unable to pay will end up paying twice: once with their tax dollars, and once with their wellbeing or with their lives. Paywalled weather alerts will deprive individuals, households, or towns with lower income of access to life-saving services.性视界传媒
Fahy, the weather service union legislative director, told me he doubts the weather service will be privatized, because so many commercial firms already get its data for a few dollars a month.
But I性视界传媒檓 not so sure, because the 性视界传媒渃ommercialization of weather technologies性视界传媒 is so clearly spelled out in Project 2025. It性视界传媒檚 all on , in which the NWS is identified as part of a 性视界传媒渃olossal operation that has become one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future U.S. prosperity.性视界传媒
Know what else is harmful to prosperity? Tornadoes that eat your town.
Here in Kansas, we typically associate weather alerts with tornadoes, flooding, blizzards, and temperature extremes. But every location across the country has its own hazards, from wildfires to volcanic ash to hurricanes.
But weather alerts aren性视界传媒檛 the only things under threat by DOGE cuts. Of the 15 federal agencies responding to Greensburg in 2007, many are now targeted for downsizing. This may lead to little warning of severe weather and reduced help after. We性视界传媒檙e already seeing the latter, as Trump性视界传媒檚 FEMA has requests from states hit by tornadoes and hurricanes.
Michael Lewis devoted a chapter to the Joplin tornado in his 2018 book, The death toll in Joplin was the highest since the government had started issuing tornado warnings, in 1948. But it wasn性视界传媒檛 the failure of the National Weather Service that had killed 158 in Joplin, Lewis concluded, because the sirens blared 17 minutes before the storm hit. Instead, it was the inability of citizens to understand their government 性视界传媒 and the inability of the government to understand its citizens. Not enough Joplin residents had sought shelter when warned because they had the 性视界传媒渇alse confidence性视界传媒 they would not be hit. Even a congressman misunderstood that weather channels and phone apps come from data provided by the NWS.
For complicated reasons, human beings have a difficult time imagining the things that might actually kill them. Lewis said that性视界传媒檚 one of the reasons, after the Joplin tornado, that the weather service began encouraging news outlets to help people imagine what might happen if they didn性视界传媒檛 take cover: 性视界传媒淐omplete destruction of entire neighborhoods 性视界传媒 making the area unrecognizable to survivors.性视界传媒
Comparable warnings are appropriate for the era of Trump and DOGE.
We were told, but we just couldn性视界传媒檛 imagine how bad it would be. Surely our weather forecast center, our university, our Medicaid won性视界传媒檛 be hit. Now we have some of the damage assessments, and it amounts to an EF5 political disaster.
The crippling of the NWS forecast office at Goodland is a symptom of a hostile takeover of the federal government by a quasi-governmental group, DOGE, that was headed Elon Musk, the president性视界传媒檚 biggest donor. DOGE性视界传媒檚 actions have made little sense, unless you think cruelty makes sense, or unless you realize they resemble the way in which a corporate raider will strip assets from a company and then sell off the carcass.
When severe weather threatens, who would you rather get your information from?
Your NOAA weather alert radio, activated automatically and broadcasting accurate and authoritative bulletins compiled by the nearest NWS forecast station, or Big Don性视界传媒檚 性视界传媒楴ado Tracker app? Oh, here性视界传媒檚 a heads up on customer service for the 性视界传媒楴ado Tracker.
It性视界传媒檚 only available 9 to 5, Monday through Friday. Holidays excluded. And customer support is for premium members only.
Max McCoy is an award-winning author and journalist. Through its opinion section, the Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, .
