VALLEY, Neb. (KMTV) — Rep. Mike Flood has been advocating for more staffing at the Valley office of the National Weather Service. Due to lack of staff, he says the office had to cut its weather balloon program.
- Flood told reporters forecasters from other regions will be assigned to the Valley office and the office will return to launching weather balloons twice a day. He hopes those temporary assignments will become permanent.
- The congressman says a hiring freeze during the Biden administration meant that staffing levels in the Valley office were low already. Then, he says, the early retirement buy-out offered by DOGE meant the NWS office was about 50% understaffed.
- As a result, it couldn't launch weather balloon, which collect critical weather forecasting data for the whole country.
- Rep. Flood: “It doesn’t take them very long to get to the Hawkeye state and that’s how the Des Moines weather service office is predicting the weather.”
WATCH KATRINA'S STORY BELOW
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT
The National Weather Service provides lifesaving information, so when the Trump Administration announced cuts – Nebraska's congressional delegation pushed back.
I’m Katrina Markel speaking with Congressman Mike Flood in Valley.
Flood announced on Friday that two more forecasters are temporarily relocating from other parts of the country to the weather service office in Valley.
He says a hiring freeze during the Biden Administration meant the agency was short-staffed before the Trump Administration took over and then...
“I think that the early buy-out that was part of the DOGE effort, contributed to the challenge that already existed,” Flood told reporters.
It meant the weather service lacked the staff to launch its twice daily weather balloons, which collect data used for forecasting across the country.
Rep. Flood: “It doesn’t take them very long to get to the Hawkeye state and that’s how the Des Moines weather service office is predicting the weather.”
Katrina Markel: “Who did you hear from?”
Rep. Flood: “I, uh, just everybody. I’d be in the airport boarding an airplane and they’d be like ‘Congressman we need that weather balloon.’”
Flood says North Platte and Rapid City should have improved staffing as well.
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