FEMA Employees Warn Trump Cuts Amount to 'Abandonment of the American People'

People will die if we're not ready

And Trump fired them for saying so

Brad Reed for Common Dreams

20 years ago, Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans

More than 180 federal emergency relief workers have signed a letter warning that Donald Trump's administration is severely harming their ability to respond to future disasters.

The letter, which was sent to members of Congress on Monday, painted a dire picture of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) under Trump's watch.

"Since January 2025, FEMA has been under the leadership of individuals lacking legal qualifications, Senate approval, and the demonstrated background required of a FEMA administrator," the employees stated.

With truth comes consequences

"Decisions made by FEMA's Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Administrator (SOPDA) David Richardson, former SOPDA Cameron Hamilton, and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem erode the capacity of FEMA... hinder the swift execution of our mission, and dismiss experienced staff whose institutional knowledge and relationships are vital to ensure effective emergency management."

The employees then detailed several specific ways that the Trump administration has hamstrung the agency, which they said would be tantamount to "the effective dissolution of FEMA itself and the abandonment of the American people" if not corrected.

First, they faulted Noem for requiring personal review for all contracts, grants, and mission assignments costing more than $100,000, which they described as an improper impoundment of agency funds that "reduces FEMA's authorities and capabilities to swiftly deliver our mission."

They then took aim at Richardson, whom they lambasted as wholly unqualified for his position.

"Hurricane season has begun, yet FEMA continues to lack an appointed administrator with the mandated qualifications to fulfill this role," they warned. "The dangers of unqualified leadership were a significant lesson learned from Hurricane Katrina."

New Research Shows More Extreme Global Warming Impacts Looming for the Northeast

Blizzards and nor'easters

By Bob Berwyn

A pair of new climate studies suggest an intensification of strong storms called nor’easters and other disruptive extremes affecting the East Coast of North America on an overheated planet.

Nor’easters generally form within about 100 miles of the East Coast between North Carolina and Massachusetts, often when cooler air from Canada meets warm, moist air over Gulf Stream waters. 

Those contrasting air masses can start to spin with a nudge from the jet stream, fueling storms that can produce damaging winds, coastal flooding and intense, disruptive snowfall in the winter.

The strongest nor’easters are already significantly windier and rainier than they were in the middle of the 20th century, said University of Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Mann, a co-author of a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A 2022 study showed a similar trend of intensification for storms forming over the Atlantic and hitting Europe, and that the track of those storms is moving northward, potentially putting unsuspecting areas more at risk.

“There are two reasons to look at the most intense nor’easters,” Mann said via email. “First, from an impact standpoint, they do the most damage, including coastal erosion, destruction and paralyzing snowfalls. The 1962 Ash Wednesday storm, with 84 mile per hour gusts, is a great example. In today’s dollars, it did $21 billion worth of damage.”

And just last February, a classic nor’easter described at the time as a “bomb cyclone” dropped several feet of snow over parts of Virginia and North Carolina and caused damaging flooding along parts of the Massachusetts coast, Eastern Long Island and the Jersey Shore.

Trump’s Department of Labor Continues Its Onslaught against Workers

Flurry of rule roll-backs hurt workers

By Century Foundation staff Julie Su, Senior Fellow; Rachel West, Senior Fellow and Andrew Stettner, Director of Economy and Jobs

The Trump administration is doubling down on the president and his Department of Labor’s (DOL) deep hostility toward workers. 

Over the past six months, Donald Trump, his inaptly named Department of Government Efficiency (whose efforts to cut the federal budget by $2 trillion was a colossal failure and which reversed itself on many occasions, actions that cost more than they saved), his union-busting cronies, and his Department of Labor leadership have actively—and in many cases illegally—cut funds for programs that support workers, worker organizing, worker safety, and job training. 

Trump’s DOL has reversed commitments to states to build an effective unemployment insurance system; undercut its own ability to fight wage theft, international worker exploitation, and discrimination; and actively dismantled the department from the inside by slashing 20 percent of its staff.

Just before the July 4 holiday—as the nation was focused on Republicans’ efforts to pass the largest-ever cuts to Medicaid and food assistance—Trump’s DOL issued a new barrage of attacks on workers, promising to turn a blind eye to stolen wages, safety violations, and corporate overreach. 

In total, the DOL announced sixty-four regulatory actions, the vast majority of which would reverse critical standards that ensure workers get a just day’s pay and come home healthy and safe (see Table 1 and Appendix). 

These actions would put the lives of workers across the economy at risk, deprive millions more of minimum wage and overtime protections, and sanction discrimination against workers of color, women, and workers with disabilities. 

At a time of rising prices, increased economic anxiety, and heightened dangers from climate change, the DOL should be doubling down on its mandate to protect and empower workers. Instead, the Trump administration is making workers more vulnerable to abuse and less safe on the job.

This factsheet highlights just some of the key deregulatory actions that will harm workers, identifying those that are particularly important to push back on through notice and comment procedures where available.

Private companies gather weather info and sell it to Weather Service since Trump budget cuts hobble NWS ability to collect it themselves

Call it weather grifting, and we could see it coming

By Meg Wilcox

When staffing shortages caused the National Weather Service (NWS) to suspend weather balloon launches at its Kotzebue, Alaska, station earlier this year, a startup deploying next-generation weather balloons, WindBorne Systems, stepped up to fill the void. 

The company began selling its western Alaskan atmospheric data to the NWS in February, plugging what could have been a critical data gap in weather forecasting. 

Weather balloons collect real-time atmospheric temperature, humidity, wind speed and pressure data that meteorologists use to predict the weather and understand longer-term changes to the climate. The Alaska office was one of about a dozen to suspend or scale back balloon launches in response to deep staffing cuts instituted by the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

Critics claim that the cuts have weakened the NWS’ forecasting capacity as hurricane season bears down and extreme weather events, like the floods that ripped through Texas, claim lives and destroy property.

Hurricane Erin's likely effects on us

 

Hurricane Erin forecast to slide past coastal Rhode Island on Thursday

But pay attention to changes. A shift to the west could change everything.

High surf, rip currents likely

As They Become More Common, Heat Waves Will Also Be More Destructive

Getting harder to find relief at the beach with high heat and bad air

By Colleen Cronin / ecoRI News staff

Summertime smog hanging over Ninigret
(photo by Will Collette)

Business closures, soaring visits to emergency rooms, and unhealthy air quality warnings are just some of what Rhode Island has to look forward to as heat waves hit more frequently and for longer periods.

Experts who recently spoke with ecoRI News warned about the risks the state will face going forward, as temperatures creep up and 100-degree days become more of the norm.

Historically a cool summer destination, Rhode Island hasn’t always needed to be ready for the consequences of extreme heat — but that time is coming to end as climate change ramps up.

Why and how is it getting warmer?

The fact Rhode Island is getting hit with more summertime heat waves, when average temperatures have crept up more slowly, isn’t necessarily intuitive, Brown University professor Stephen Porder said.

“Why does a 1-degree change in the average temperature mean all of a sudden you’re going to get so many more 100 degree days?” he asked. “It doesn’t sort of make sense, since the average temperature isn’t 99, right?”

But take a look at a shifting bell curve, and it starts to add up, he said.

As average temperatures start to shift even just a little bit higher, the frequency of more extreme high temperatures increases.

The same goes for warming winter temperatures, too, where an average creep of 1 or 2 degrees Fahrenheit transforms a state that used to be covered in snow all season long to one that only gets snow occasionally.

Trump’s rollbacks and funding cuts are affecting your food, water, and air — even if you don’t realize it.

How Donald Trump is affecting Americans' everyday lives

Grist staff

The cost to Rhode Island so far

• Over 47,000 Rhode Islanders will lose health insurance
  
• 10,000 Rhode Islanders are at risk of losing food assistance
  
• Nearly 6,000 Rhode Islanders could lose their job
  
• Combined with Trump’s reckless tariff agenda, the median household in Rhode Island will lose $1,300
  
• Rhode Islanders’ electricity bills will rise by 10.5%
• Trump’s reckless tariffs have already cost Rhode Island businesses $231.9 million

Lucas Burtin / Grist

Over the last six months, Americans have been inundated with a near-constant stream of announcements from the federal government — programs shuttered, funding cut, jobs eliminated, and regulations gutted. 

Donald Trump and his administration are executing a systematic dismantling of the environmental, economic, and scientific systems that underpin our society. The onslaught can feel overwhelming, opaque, or sometimes even distant, but these policies will have real effects on Americans’ daily lives.

In this new guide, Grist examines the impact these changes could have, and are already having, on the things you do every day. Flipping on your lights. Turning on your faucet. Paying household bills. Visiting a park. Checking the weather forecast. Feeding your family.

The decisions have left communities less safe from pollution, more vulnerable to climate disasters, and facing increasingly expensive energy bills, among other changes. Read on to see how.

— Katherine Bagley 

Repairs to Charlestown Breachway Will Protect the Health of Vital Channel

Channel's west wall damaged by winter storms, affecting health of Ninigret Pond

By Rob Smith / ecoRI News staff

Since 1952 the town’s 200-foot-long breachway has split the barrier beaches protecting Ninigret Pond in two, providing access into Block Island Sound and improving the water quality in the state’s largest saltwater lagoon. Now, state and local officials are homing in on a plan for the next 70 years.

“The goal is we’re only going to do this once, and we’re going to do it really well,” Emily Hall, a coastal geologist working for the Coastal Resources Management Council, said Thursday at a community update on the breachway at the Kettle Pond Visitor Center.

It’s been a long 20 months for the breachway, which Charlestown heavily relies on to maintain the health of Ninigret Pond. The winter of 2023-24 was harsh on Rhode Island’s south shore beaches, as a series of intense storms wiped out large portions of the area’s prized coastline.

In Charlestown, the storms tore a gap in the channel’s western wall, sending sand from the breachway’s beach straight into the waterway, making it shallower and more difficult for boaters to navigate. State and local officials, CRMC, and the Salt Ponds Coalition, well aware of the breachway’s role in the commercial, recreational, and ecological life of Charlestown, sprung into action, making temporary emergency repairs, which were completed early last fall.

(While Charlestown is the host community of the breachway, the Department of Environmental Management is actually the owner and responsible for it, working with Charlestown on maintenance and repairs.)

The breachway and Ninigret Pond are important economic and recreational drivers for the town, treasured by boaters, anglers, swimmers, and aquaculturists. About 40% of all aquaculture in Rhode Island is sited in Ninigret Pond, and it remains a popular destination for anglers. Thursday’s community update, which was well attended, was the third such meeting in the past 12 months.

The emergency repairs cost $550,000, with $300,000 paid out by DEM, with the town paying the rest. Over one week last October, a three-man crew began the repair work, hauling in 600 tons of stone and reconstructing a dune protecting the western wall with sandbags.

While officials describe the emergency repairs completed last year as just a “Band-Aid,” the project went a long way toward protecting the health of the breachway.

“You can see how even just the emergency repair has really allowed the breachway to be intact a bit more,” said Casey Tremper, a coastal resilience specialist from the University of Rhode Island’s Coastal Resources Center. “It’s also started to naturally build back the beach on the forest side of the breachway.”

Ninigret Pond has returned to being “flushed out” by the breachway again after the temporary repairs, removing sedimentation and restoring the original depth of the human-made channel, around 5 feet or so, similar to what existed prior to the major storm damage.

In addition, a sand bar known as the ebb tidal delta, which formed outside the breachway, has, thanks to the emergency repair structure, almost entirely washed away.

With the repairs in place, officials have spent the past 10 months putting together plans for a more permanent restoration that, officials are hoping, will last at least another seven decades.

There’s two major components to the breachway’s restoration. The first is the actual reconstruction of the breachway itself, which will, more or less, look a lot like the original canal built in the 1950s. The stones used for the emergency repair will act as a foundation for the western wall, which will raise the rock wall by at least 8 feet in height. Once the rock walls are steady, the plan is to rebuild the beach by trucking in sand and steeling it with vegetation and, more importantly, fortifying the dunes, with some additional artificial dunes designed to be a line of defense for the breachway.

“They’re being set up in a way that waves will hit the dunes first before they hit where the breachway broke last time,” Hall said. “Dunes are nature’s solution to energy and to storms. We’re trying to lean into that resilient component of how we can work with a natural system to keep the tides flowing, and the currents moving through the breachway.”

It will still be a decade before the dunes grow to their original size, before the breachway was battered by winter storms.

The other major part of the restoration plan is dredging the breachway. All the sand that washed into the breachway has to come out, and Steve McCandless, the town’s geographic information systems coordinator, said he expects, depending on the specific area, to dredge to a depth between 4 and 8 feet. That kind of depth will restore natural water flow and open the back of the breachway for boating again.

The town expects to dredge around 100,000 cubic yards of material from the breachway, much of which will be used to repair the town’s beach or restore the dunes surrounding the breachway.

“We’ll put about 50,000 cubic yards of material on this beach to rebuild the dunes, and the other 50,000 will go down to the Charlestown Beach area where we always put it,” McCandless said. “It’s town property and removes the issues of using federal or public funds to dredge public waters.”

The total cost for the new permanent breachway is estimated to be $8.4 million, with $5 million of the total coming from DEM’s budget by way of a transfer to CRMC, with another $2 million coming from the coastal agency for the dredging itself. The remainder, $1.4 million, will be paid from Charlestown’s dredging fund.

Both DEM and CRMC are expected to approve final permits for the restoration project sometime in the next two weeks, according to Hall and McCandless. The Army Corps of Engineers, the federal entity that traditionally oversees all dredging projects in the United States, has already issued its own permits for the breachway restoration.

Prep work for the restoration project, once permits are in hand, is expected to start as early as Sept. 15, once the local piping plovers, a threatened shorebird species, migrate for the season. Once the DEM campground near the breachway closes for the season, on Nov. 1, the bulk of construction can begin, with the new breachway rock walls to be constructed in December, with dredging to follow in early January. Dune restoration is expected to start in March, and delay for six months in April when the plovers return to nest on barrier beaches.

“All I can tell you for sure is that sometime between Sept. 15 and April 15, my thought is that we’re going to be 90% complete for this project,” McCandless said. “As long as we can get some rocks going, we can get it all going at the same time.”

The week ahead in Charlestown

UPDATE: Warm but not too warm, ground level ozone, increased pollen and Flip Filippi is mad about dog poo

By Will Collette

UPDATE: When I posted this article yesterday, the pollution forecast for today called for MODERATE ground level ozone pollution. DEM has upgraded that warning to UNHEALTHY for today. The moderate ozone pollution warning has been extended into Thursday. There is a 50% chance of rain in Charlestown on Thursday which will help clean the air though the pollen forecast continues to be high.

One of Charlestown's big advantages is how our temperatures are usually milder than Providence. This week, the city will swelter in 90+ degree heat while our temps will be in the low 80s. Not much rain so be sure you tend your tomato plants.

The heat in the city will drive up our beach traffic. Aside from the hassle of dealing with visitors' driving habits, the increased traffic plus warm temperatures will increase dangerous ground level ozone pollution levels to "moderate" for at least the next three days. It doesn't look like we'll see much smoke from the Canadian wildfires that covered much of our area last week.

Seasonal allergy sufferers are probably also aware that pollen counts are back up and are slated to rise even more. The sources are ragweed, grasses and nettle. The lack of rain contributes to these high pollen counts:

Finally, please note the complaints tweeted by ex-Charlestown state Rep. Blake "Flip" Filippi. Flip still owns a house in Charlestown though he mostly lives elsewhere - Block Island, his cattle range or who knows where. If you're anywhere near 17 Josephine Drive in Charlestown, he has some instructions for you on how to handle your dog shit:

As Donald Trump likes to say, "Thank you for your attention to this matter."

Everything from coffee and cocoa to potatoes and onions to olive oil and veggies hit by climate change

16 times extreme weather drove higher food prices since 2022

In a global economy, food problems become global quickly

Orla Dwyer

Map showing examples of specific food price rises around the world over 2022-24, based on media articles and other sources that cited extreme weather as a cause of the rise. Each instance of drought (yellow), rainfall (blue) and heat (red) was compared to historical climate data from either the same month or same time period over 1940-2019 and, in the case of drought, 1901-2019. The shading represents the extent to which each extreme weather event exceeded percentiles of the historical distribution. Credit: Carbon Brief, based on Kotz et al. (2025)

UK potatoes, South Korean cabbage and west African cocoa are just some of the foods that became markedly more expensive after extreme weather events in recent years, according to new research. 

The study, published in Environmental Research Letters, analyses 16 examples of food price rises across the world that followed periods of extreme heat, drought or rainfall over 2022-24. 

A “striking” example, according to the lead author, is the wide-ranging price impact following a 2024 heatwave in Asia, which saw cost increases from onions in India to rice in Japan. 

Soaring food prices have been a major concern for consumers around the world since around 2021, with prices rising due to extreme weather fueled by climate change, higher production costs and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – among other factors. 

The new findings act as a “stark reminder” of the “significant pressure” climate change is already having on crops, a researcher not involved in the study says. 

Why 2025 became the summer of flash flooding in America

People die while Trump cuts funds for emergency prep, weather forecasting

Jeffrey Basara, UMass Lowell

The National Weather Service has already issued more than 3,600 flash flood warnings across the United States in 2025, and that number is increasing as torrential downpours continue in late July. There’s a good chance the U.S. will exceed its yearly average of around 4,000 flash flood warnings soon.

For communities in Texas, New Mexico, West Virginia and New Jersey, the floods have been deadly. And many more states have seen flash flood damage in recent weeks, including New York, Oklahoma, Kansas, Vermont and Iowa.

What’s causing so much extreme rain and flooding?

Much of the central and eastern U.S. has had above-normal precipitation over the three months from April 23 through July 24, 2025. Blues are 150% to 200% of normal. Purples are even higher. NOAA National Water Prediction Service

I study extreme precipitation events along with the complex processes that lead to the devastating damage they cause.

Both the atmosphere and surface conditions play important roles in when and where flash floods occur and how destructive they become, and 2025 has seen some extremes, with large parts of the country east of the Rockies received at least 50% more precipitation than normal from mid-April through mid-July.

Can we count on accurate hurricane forecasts under Trump?

Hurricane forecasters are losing 3 key satellites ahead of peak storm season

Chris Vagasky, University of Wisconsin-Madison

About 600 miles off the west coast of Africa, large clusters of thunderstorms begin organizing into tropical storms every hurricane season. They aren’t yet in range of Hurricane Hunter flights, so forecasters at the National Hurricane Center rely on weather satellites to peer down on these storms and beam back information about their location, structure and intensity.

The satellite data helps meteorologists create weather forecasts that keep planes and ships safe and prepare countries for a potential hurricane landfall.

Now, meteorologists are about to lose access to three of those satellites.

On June 25, 2025, the Trump administration issued a service change notice announcing that the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, DMSP, and the Navy’s Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center would terminate data collection, processing and distribution of all DMSP data no later than June 30. The data termination was postponed until July 31 following a request from the head of NASA’s Earth Science Division.

How hurricanes form. NOAA

I am a meteorologist who studies lightning in hurricanes and helps train other meteorologists to monitor and forecast tropical cyclones. Here is how meteorologists use the DMSP data and why they are concerned about it going dark.

Unhealthy air, high heat continue until tonight

TODAY, Tuesday: high heat and autos lead to UNHEALTHY ground level ozone pollution.

Until 8 PM Wednesday, Charlestown is under a heat advisory

By Will Collette

Source: National Weather Service 7-Day Forecast 41.38N 71.66W

Please watch out for the heat for the next few days and, if you have respiratory problems, try to stay in air conditioning. 

Combined heat and humidity will produce heat index values between 95 and 100 degrees.

This heat will combine with drifting smoke from Canadian wildfires, plus automobile emissions to produce air over Charlestown ranging from "moderate" (which is not good) to "unhealthy" tomorrow.

As you can see in the table below, DEM gives its forecast for both ground level ozone (vehicle-related) and fine particles (usually smoke-related).

The air quality forecast is pretty much in synch with the hot weather forecast.

Be careful out there.

Source: Air Quality Forecast | Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management

TUESDAY ALERT: 

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) forecasts that air quality will reach unhealthy levels for sensitive groups due to elevated ground-level ozone on Tuesday, July 29. This alert is being issued for Washington and Newport Counties only.

Key Details:

• The highest ozone levels are expected in southern portions of Rhode Island at the immediate coastline.
• Peak levels begin late afternoon continuing well into the evening after sunset.
• Fine particles continue to be elevated, with moderate readings due to Canadian wildfire smoke.

Health Impacts:

Unhealthy ozone levels may cause:

• Throat irritation, coughing, and chest pain.
• Shortness of breath and increased risk of respiratory infections.
• Worsening of asthma and other lung conditions - particularly for children, the elderly, and those with pre-existing respiratory issues.

Recommended actions:

• Reduce prolonged or heavy outdoor exertion. 

• Take frequent breaks and choose less strenuous activities. 

• Monitor for symptoms like coughing or shortness of breath.

• People with asthma or lung conditions should follow their action plans and carry quick-relief medications.

• Schedule outdoor activities in the morning when ozone levels are lowest and typically good on the Air Quality index.

Stay Informed:

Air quality can change throughout the day. To stay informed, download the AirNOW app or visit www.airnow.gov for real-time updates and forecasts.

Additional information is also available on DEM’s air quality forecast page at www.dem.ri.gov/airquality.

For more information on DEM programs and initiatives, visit www.dem.ri.gov Follow DEM on Facebook, Twitter/X (@RhodeIslandDEM), or Instagram (@rhodeisland.dem) for timely updates. Sign up here to receive the latest press releases, news, and events from DEM's Public Affairs Office to your inbox.