America Circa 2015: The Nation that FOLDS in the Face of Adversity

National Weather Service failed to staff and now plans to phase out an elite team of emergency forecasters trained to help cities save lives and avoid the kind of unnecessary shutdowns that cost New York City an estimated $200 million last week, according to meteorologists.
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"There's no question we would have had a different outcome if these programs were in place," Proenza told NBC News. "Why unnecessarily close the city when in reality we can make other adjustments?"

Dan Sobien, an ERS in Tampa, who was also instrumental in launching the program, said the value of these forecasters far exceeds the cost. A complete national network of 402 emergency meteorologists would cost about $50 million a year, according to a copy of the original proposal obtained by NBC News. But Sobien, who is also the president of the NWS Employees Organization, thinks we'd see a national impact for half that much. That would equal a tenth of the economic loss New York City suffered in the recent blizzard, and a fraction of the billions lost to extreme weather every year.

"It would probably pay for itself every week," he told NBC News. "Certainly if another Sandy happened, it would pay for itself for the rest of our lives, and our kids lives, and our grandkids lives."

You talk about how stupid we all are (except you, I guess)...and about what you see as the consequences of our stupidity on our nation's place in the world...

...and then you wonder why people react the way they do to your posts, Hawk.

You shouldn't be wondering. You should be thinking...and perhaps better expressing whatever your frustrations drive you to express.

Frank Apisa wrote:

You talk about how stupid we all are (except you, I guess)...and about what you see as the consequences of our stupidity on our nation's place in the world...

...and then you wonder why people react the way they do to your posts, Hawk.

You shouldn't be wondering. You should be thinking...and perhaps better expressing whatever your frustrations drive you to express.

We as a nation can not fix our problems till we acknowledge them.

First things first, and keep your priorities straight....people liking me is not important, fixing our problems is.

And the estimate of the shut down costing $200 million seems low to me, I would like to see some work ups on just what this bit of stupidity cost us.