Preparation Saves Lives

An email to constituents last week contained an important message: As we start the 2025 hurricane season, it’s important to be prepared. The note, from U.S. Representative Nick LaLota, included contact information for a variety of important resources: the National Hurricane Center, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“As a lifelong Long Islander and your representative in Congress,” LaLota wrote, “I’ve seen how storms like Gloria, Bob, Irene and Sandy can devastate our communities. Preparation saves lives.”

He’s absolutely right, on all counts. Except one.

LaLota supports domestic funding legislation, and an administration in Washington, D.C., that has openly attacked every one of those institutions, and is starving them of much-needed funds. Add the National Weather Service to that list — the agency that will provide exactly the kind of urgent warning LaLota and his constituents will need to truly be prepared for a major storm.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick testified to Congress that the National Hurricane Center is “fully staffed” and called concerns “fake news.” But CNN, and other news agencies, have challenged those facts: “Many local NWS offices are so short on meteorologists in the wake of Trump administration firings, buyouts and early retirement incentives that the agency has authorized internal transfers to fill critical gaps,” CNN reports.

The haphazard nature of the spending cuts by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency has real-world impacts — and this is a serious one for our region. Give LaLota credit for knowing that preparation is essential to limit the devastating impact of any major storm. But advance notice is a key element of that preparation, too.

“Let’s stay safe, stay prepared, and stay resilient,” LaLota wrote in his email. It’s terrific advice — let’s hope he takes it. If government cuts end up costing lives in a severe weather incident on the South Fork, they will hardly be a bargain.