As it stands, NOAA, the nation’s main weather service, is one of the few resources communities can access when attempting to understand how a major storm or wildfire may impact them. Every year, the agency saves hundreds of lives with its weather alerts. However, the conservative agenda known as Project 2025 would privatize NOAA and disband its services, hampering communities' abilities to prepare and understand disasters. “Together,” the Project 2025 agenda reads, “these form a colossal operation that has become one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future U.S. prosperity.”

As Hurricane Helene barrels across the Southeast, Black communities in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama face devastating floods and power outages, with concerns mounting over inadequate post-disaster resources.

All but one of Florida’s counties were placed under a state of emergency, and tens of thousands of people living in the state’s coastal communities, which are disproportionately Black, were forced to evacuate. Just like the other massive climate change-fueled storms of recent years in the Gulf of Mexico, Helene underwent rapid intensification and ballooned to become one of the widest storms ever recorded.

This hurricane season, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been instrumental in protecting Black Southerners, but Project 2025 wants to turn the free weather service into something you pay for like Netflix.

Historically, the quickly changing storm would cause serious issues for government officials to share accurate and timely information. But this time around, the Southeast has been able to follow climate science to guide its responses. By evacuating residents and attempting to fortify coastal buildings before the storm, Florida’s disaster preparedness plan will potentially help save thousands of lives, and it’s guided by NOAA. Project 2025 would privatize NOAA, worsening disaster preparedness efforts and climate inequity.

The storm’s potential to exacerbate long-standing racial and environmental inequities adds urgency to calls for better emergency preparedness. Hurricane Ian, the most costly storm in U.S. history, laid bare how Florida’s racial inequalities can fuel deaths during weather disasters.

Read the full article about Project 2025 and disaster preparedness by Adam Mahoney at Capital B News.