Less than a month in Donald Trump's second term, the president Signed an Executive Order That provided the Non-Government Department of Government Efficiency Broad Powers to gat a federal worker, in the name of cost spending.
Doge – led by multilogona ”Special government employee“Elon Musk – continued with enthusiasm, Employed to scrap funds For cancer treatment for veterans, reported cutting FDA employees work directly with the Musk company Neurink, Slashing (and then walking back) layoffs In the National Nuclear Security Administration, cutting About 1,000 staff Employed for National Park Service nationwide, and this month, after a Starting StartingBeginning Layoffs and is inthe country's space agency.
In the last week of February, Way -The federal workers In the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is fired – about 10% of agency workers. One of the affected employees was Andrew Hazelton, a meteorologist who grew up in Florida and until last month spent his days along with the Hurricane Research Division Modeling Team, which helps NOAA to understand severe storms and ease the worst of their effects. Hazelton is on administrative leave now – he is not allowed to work – a temporary recurrence position that can keep him (and many other NOAA staff) in Limbo as their situation works through the federal court system.
Gizmodo talked to Hazelton by phone this week to discuss the position he and the other federal employees at NOAA were talking as the D Doing The Doge rolled through the Federal Workers. Below is our conversation, lightly edited for clarity.
Isaac Schultz, Gizmodo: I understand things that have changed on the last day with a memo temporarily reinstating staff to “fee, not duty” status, which can add a new scale to our conversation. Walk me to the timeline here, from your work to NOAA to the disappearances and really how far this rollercoaster is today.
Andrew Hazelton: I have been with NOAA in different capacities for over 8 years. After getting my PhD in 2016, I cooperated with a postdoc at Princeton University for the NOAA Lab up there, NAAA GFDL at Princeton for 2 years, and then I went to AOML, the Hurricane Research Division, in 2018, working for the University of Miami. Last October I started the federal position, working for the NOAA environmental modeling center that produces storm models and model development.
As yesterday we were – on the paper at least – reinstated on the admin leave, because of the court's decision over the weekend. However, what it looks like exactly, there are still many questions that we will need to get answers. Apparently – based on the words they sent us – that they were waiting for another court to say they could go backpay. And for now we are not allowed to work.
I was a new federal employee even though I was working on the NOAA for 8 years or more, and after February 27th we got all this email usually just letting us know that we were fired. It's kind of chaotic because they have a time of notice. We got to the state of this limbo. I know some people have filed appeals on the Merit Board. There was this initial injunction that gives us to restore, but it seems to be relying on its appeals. And there is still some uncertainty on whether a legal disappearance process may have thereafter.
Gizmodo: Apparently across a number of agencies, people are not just about these disappearances, but then stuck in these situations where it is unclear exactly what their status is, and what is the next federal government transfer.
Hazelton: Right. It depends on the outcomes of the court, and even in the departments it seems that some are responding to decisions differently – some are more enthusiastic than others. Many don't know.
Gizmodo: We can talk about some unknown, openly. Your focus is Hurricanes. How many people specifically working in storms have been affected, somehow, and what can it say to the public – people who need information about incoming storms?
Hazelton: In my team, I am the main person who makes the storms. There are other people who produce other types of modeling: severe weather and ocean models, all kinds of things. There are other people in the NOAA that are part of the storm hunters, the flys in the storms, and I did that as part of my last role. There were some people from that group killed. A dozen couples may have been restored as part of the judge's decision, but there is not much communication about what standard is used for that, but some are not fully restored. They are not given much information about the standard or plan, but the big thing is, if people are not fully restored, it will be difficult.
These are people who work in some of the computer models that are our main data collection tool. I know people are affected in the satellite division, and satellites are one of our big tools for monitoring all kinds of weather, not just storms. The effects can be felt throughout the board, for anyone who relies on weather data.
Gizmodo: Just because our readers are familiar with storms – many are in the American Southeast – can you name some storms you ride?
Hazelton: Since I was there last year, it was the first part of the storm. I was in Helene last year, and then I also flew into hurricanes like Michael in 2018, Dorian in 2019, Ian, which most people of the Gulf, Idalia remember. I will fly to quite some big and do the work on aircraft data and also the modeling.
Gizmodo: What is like flying in a storm, and what storm is the most unstable?
Hazelton: Most flight is just kind of like a harsh commercial flight. It is an aircraft of P-3. It's a propeller plane – kind of a harsh, noisy plane in general – but very powerful. But when you get to the eyewall – the ring near the middle is the most intense part of the storm – where you will see some real bumps.
I think Michael is probably the storm that is the worst. I wasn't on the famous flight of Ian where they were really rocking around – I was the new one. So Michael and Also Helene last year was a pretty intense eyewall. We don't want to fly because it's very gnarly looking at the radar.
Gizmodo: The people in and affiliated with this administration have a lot to talk about Privatizing weather Forecasting. What are your opinions about it, and what does that perspective mean for federal workers and for the way the public get their information on the weather, depending on how much you have successfully thought of that effort, should they continue with it?
Hazelton: The thing is that there is already a relatively stable private weather business. There are private companies that do good deeds. We work with them and many of them rely on NOAA data for their apps or various tools. It's really a good public-private partnership that I think is honestly a model for that kind of thing. I don't think we want to get to a point where there is such a subscription -based model for warnings or any kind of data that will save life or information. Honestly, open access to data for the cost of your tax dollar is one of the things that has really been the NOAA model. If you look at the numbers, it costs only 6 cents per American per day to fund all NOAA at its current level.
This is a relatively minuscule cost when you look like the dollar has been saved. Whenever there is a storm, better forecasts that allow people to come out – or vice versa, if they are not affected, they do not need to close their school or business. Better forecasts save life and money. In many ways, NOAA really pays for itself.
Gizmodo: You mentioned that some people were returned early. It seems like it's kind of a black box how those decisions are made. Is that a fair characterization?
Hazelton: Yes, there has never been a standard or communication. I think some veterans should be the wishes for the previous federal service, but it really is not clear to us how these decisions are being made.
Gizmodo: In that case, a silly question I still ask: Is there an idea of how long this ambiguity will last?
Hazelton: No, not really. I think it relies on many cases in court and how they are playing. That was above my grade grade. I'm just ready to go back to work doing what I want to do and what will help protect the American public.
Gizmodo: Because of the disruption of these disappearances and your hands tied to work, you seem to have only a few things sitting at your desk waiting to be resumed, with something dying -changing time, probably not the best thing.
Hazelton: It's tough. My co -workers, those who are still there, they are great and they work hard, but it's only difficult when you have an agency that is being -andeffed and that is only thinner. It's hard to do everything you want and you need.
Gizmodo: Is there anything you want to meet about any of your personal experiences today or the experience of federal workers in general at this time?
Hazelton: Most of us just want to go back to the work we do to help American public. The NOAA mission is to protect lives and ownership. We have a track record of doing this and that's what we want to go back to doing.
