A wave of ferocious storms tore across the southeastern United States over the weekend, leaving at least 27 people dead—including 18 in Kentucky alone—as warnings surfaced that federal weather agencies were critically understaffed during the disaster. In a tragic convergence of austerity and atmospheric fury, the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Jackson, Kentucky operated without a permanent overnight forecaster just hours before the tornado outbreak.
This vulnerable staffing lapse, detailed in a report by The New York Times, was linked to aggressive budgetary reductions championed by the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a controversial agency fronted by Elon Musk. DOGE’s mandate to slash “redundant” federal operations has gutted multiple scientific and disaster-response branches, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which oversees the NWS.
Tom Fahy, legislative director for the National Weather Service Employees Organization, confirmed that these cuts have impacted 24/7 operations across several forecast centers. “For most of the last half century, NWS has been a 24/7 operation—not anymore thanks to Elon Musk,” Fahy told The Washington Post (source).
In Jackson, Kentucky—one of the hardest-hit locations—the lack of permanent overnight forecasters forced the agency to rely on “surge staffing” from neighboring offices in Paducah and Louisville. While officials insist those measures were sufficient, the optics are grim. Eighteen people perished in Kentucky, including nine in Laurel County alone, where tornadoes flipped vehicles, reduced homes to debris fields, and forced emergency shelters to capacity.
To be clear, no one claims the deaths were directly caused by staffing shortages. But critics argue that even the perception of diminished readiness undermines public trust in the nation’s warning systems. “This wasn’t just a storm,” said meteorologist and former NOAA adviser Carla Whittington. “This was a systemic failure. You can’t run disaster response like a startup.”
This erosion of emergency infrastructure is not isolated. Newsweek has previously reported that multiple NWS offices across the U.S. are temporarily below standard staffing levels, often lacking overnight coverage during high-risk periods. While NOAA insists that surge staffing and inter-office coordination are working, experts caution that patchwork coverage cannot substitute for embedded, round-the-clock forecasting.
Meanwhile, the devastation continues to mount. In Missouri, seven more deaths were confirmed—five in St. Louis, where a church collapsed under the weight of the storm, killing one. In Virginia, two additional fatalities were recorded. Thousands remain without power across Wisconsin and other impacted regions.
The emotional toll is equally devastating. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear announced on Saturday: “We lost at least 14 of our people to last night’s storms, and tragically, that number may continue to rise.” He urged residents to stay strong and continue checking on their neighbors.
But faith in resilience cannot compensate for institutional decay. Dismantling a vital federal service under the guise of efficiency is more than reckless—it is perilous. With hurricane season looming, the implications of neutered forecasting capacity could be catastrophic. Severe weather is becoming more frequent and more intense, and yet national readiness is being hollowed out in real-time.
For families who received warnings only moments before impact, “cost-cutting” sounds less like governance and more like abandonment. No one should have to wonder whether the forecast they’re relying on was delayed because someone somewhere decided to cut corners.