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No excuse for NOAA failures

The federal government is moving heaven and Earth to rebuild the Gulf Coast devastated by Katrina. But for years, the Miami Herald found, Washington scrimped on coastal defenses that protect the hemisphere from hurricanes. In an investigative series this week, the newspaper detailed how buoys, weather balloons, radars and other equipment had failed in nearly half of the 45 hurricanes that made land since 1992. This record is inexcusable, because improving it would cost little money and save lives.

By now Floridians have gotten it through their heads that forecasting is inexact and it's smart to focus on the cone of danger, not a hurricane's exact path. Still, forecasters at the National Hurricane Center depend on a range of equipment to chart the course and ferocity of tropical storms - and much of that equipment, the Herald found, is outdated, broken and beyond use. Among the newspaper's findings: Budget constraints have kept hurricane-hunter aircraft on the ground, malfunctioning weather stations and balloons have left the coastline vulnerable and equipment crucial to measuring wind speed and direction sometimes cannot operate in severe weather.

Congress needs to examine the priorities and working culture of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The parent agency of the National Weather Service has not prepared the nation for what many scientists believe is a period of heightened hurricane activity. According to the Herald, buoys have been broken for months, high-tech equipment has been sidelined by lightning and NOAA has sent its hurricane-hunter planes on missions that have little to do with hurricanes. At the same time, the agency has failed to invest in research and technology and has pressed its staff to keep quiet about the problems.

The government is not just setting a bad example by refusing to invest in equipment and research. Using dated computers and flawed forecasting jeopardizes the emergency preparation of scores of coastal communities. State and local governments depend on NOAA for overarching hurricane advice - a storm's path, speed, strength and other fundamentals trigger evacuations and other major decisions. Investing a few hundred million could improve NOAA's ability to forecast late changes in a storm's direction, understand why storms may strengthen before landfall and predict inland flooding, a major killer. As Hugh Willoughby, who headed hurricane research for NOAA, told the Herald: "We see the outlines of what needs to be done, but before it comes to fruition, more people could die."

The richest nation on Earth can afford to protect its people better.

[Last modified October 12, 2005, 00:19:18]