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ITV News
7 days ago
- Climate
- ITV News
Bahamas PM warns country could be condemed to a 'watery grave' if climate crisis not taken seriously
From above, The Bahamas look like a tropical paradise but the reality on the ground is that they are at risk. 80% of the islands which make up The Bahamas are less than three metres above sea level, making them very vulnerable to climate-induced sea level rise. Severe weather events like hurricanes are also becoming more frequent. In 2019, Hurricane Dorian became the most intense tropical cyclone to ever hit the islands causing 84 deaths and a record $5.1 billion dollars of damage. Faced with the effects of climate change, the Prime Minister of the Bahamas, Philip Davis says he is 'terribly concerned' for the future of his country. Parts of the island he grew up on as a child, have disappeared into the sea already and he fears for the future of his country if world leaders do not step up. 'We have produced the challenges that we face today because of our own conduct and our own action.'There are real issues to be seen if you do not just sit in your ivory tower and talk about these issues.' He is appealing for the world to take the crisis seriously and follow discussions like the annual COP meetings with meaningful action. 'If not, we will be condemned to a watery grave or become climate refugees' he warns.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Yahoo
As the ocean rises, NCDOT looks for a way to maintain ferry service to Ocracoke
N.C. 12, the highway that runs down the spine of the Outer Banks, is constantly at risk of being covered in water and sand because of erosion and sea-level rise. Those forces also threaten one of the state's ferry terminals. Ocean water has swallowed pavement and the septic drain field at the Hatteras Inlet car ferry terminal on Ocracoke, forcing the N.C. Department of Transportation to consider whether to fortify the docks or build new ones elsewhere on the island. NCDOT has come up with four options that it made public in May. Because of the dramatic loss of shoreline in front of the ferry terminal at the north end of Ocracoke, doing nothing is not one of them, said Jed Dixon, director of the NCDOT's Ferry Division. 'In one storm, we could lose all this if nothing's done,' Dixon said, gesturing toward an aerial photo of the terminal, known as South Dock. 'So we really need to start the planning now.' Ferries are lifelines for Ocracoke, an island community of fewer than 800 year-round residents whose population swells several times that size in the summer. NCDOT's vehicle ferries between Ocracoke and Hatteras carried 186,156 cars and trucks last year and 426,222 passengers. Two of the options for preserving that service involve expanding the ferry terminal in Ocracoke Village and landing the Hatteras ferries there. That would more than double the run time between Hatteras and Ocracoke to 2 1/2 hours and require NCDOT to buy more of the larger boats capable of operating in the open waters of Pamlico Sound. A third option would be a new ferry terminal at Devil Shoals, in an undeveloped area outside the village near the Ocracoke Campground. It also would require larger boats and a longer trip, and would come with unpopular environmental costs both in the water and on land. The final option is to overhaul South Dock, with new slips for larger boats and new 'stacking lanes,' where cars can wait to board. The old waiting area is no longer usable after large sections of pavement were washed away. The big challenge with maintaining South Dock is that more than a mile of N.C. 12 just south of the terminal is close to the surf and prone to flooding. In 2020, after Hurricane Dorian washed away the beach and left the road broken and buckled, NCDOT installed 2,500 sandbags to try to stabilize the protective dune. The bags just barely hold back the sea, says Dave Hallac, superintendent of Cape Hatteras National Seashore, which stretches over 70 miles and includes most of Ocracoke. 'Even on a calm day, the waves are basically hitting the other sides of those sand bags,' Hallac told members of the N.C. Board of Transportation's ferry committee in December. 'And then when the surf kicks up, there's just nothing to stop it.' Because of rising ocean waters and subsiding land, scientists predict sea-level rise of 15 to 22 inches along the Outer Banks by 2050, according to the Fifth National Climate Assessment released in late 2023. That will make South Dock and other areas of N.C. 12 even more vulnerable, Hallac said. 'Challenges associated with erosion are going to become worse with sea-level rise, and you don't have to be an oceanographer to know that,' he said. 'With more water, we're going to have more erosion.' What to do at South Dock is just the latest challenge for NCDOT along N.C. 12. Four years ago, Dare County created the N.C. 12 Task Force to work with NCDOT, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Hyde County to develop a long-term plan to keep the highway open. The plan focused on seven 'hot spots' where the road is especially vulnerable, including the section on Ocracoke near South Dock. One of the hot spots has been fixed in a way that shows how difficult and expensive maintaining N.C. 12 can be. Two years ago, NCDOT bypassed the so-called S-curves north of Rodanthe by building a 2.4-mile bridge out over Pamlico Sound, at a cost of $154 million. It's hard to focus on one trouble spot without thinking about the others. At a public meeting about South Dock on Hatteras last month, charter boat captain Steve Coulter asked NCDOT officials about the section of highway between Frisco and Hatteras Village that became an inlet after Hurricane Isabel in 2003 and remains perilously narrow. 'All of this is moot if that doesn't get fixed,' said Coulter, who heads Dare County's Waterways Commission. 'That's the narrowest place on the damn island. The most susceptible spot on Highway 12 from Ocracoke to Oregon Inlet right now is right there.' The narrowest place on Ocracoke is just south of South Dock. Of the four choices presented by NCDOT, fortifying the existing ferry terminal would be the least expensive and disruptive to residents and visitors alike. But it can't be done without also fixing the road, says Natalie Kavanagh, another member of the Dare County Waterways Commission who attended the meeting. 'That is the one that makes the most sense,' Kavanagh said, nodding toward the NCDOT's South Dock plan. 'But we've got to get people safely from there to the village.' Ronnie Sawyer, NCDOT's deputy division engineer for the area that includes Dare and Hyde counties, said the N.C. 12 Task Force identified potential strategies for stabilizing that stretch of highway, ranging from more sand bags to moving or raising the road or building a bridge. The problem, Sawyer said: 'We don't have any money to go with our desires there.' In addition to public meetings on Hatteras and Ocracoke, NCDOT collected feedback on its four plans for South Dock online, where some patterns emerged from the mostly anonymous comments. For starters, few support moving the Hatteras car ferry to Silver Lake in Ocracoke Village. Many said that would both suffocate the community with cars and threaten the tourism business with fewer and longer boat trips. 'The Village couldn't handle traffic from all the runs, especially in season,' one person wrote. 'Moving the terminal and creating a 2+ hour trip will kill the economy and turn Ocracoke into another Portsmouth,' a reference to the abandoned town on a neighboring island. A new terminal at Devil Shoals enjoys a little more support, though usually as the best of four bad choices. Many oppose the dredging and loss of habitat that would be required to make it work and worry about marring a pristine part of the island. 'Please leave this area alone,' one person wrote. Reinforcing South Dock is the most popular choice, as long as it includes stabilizing N.C. 12. 'This is the only feasible option if Ocracoke is to survive,' someone wrote. But others are skeptical about trying to hold off the sea at the north end of the island. 'I know many prefer this, but it's not a long-term answer,' one person wrote. 'The erosion is only going to continue. Better to move it south and ensure access long term.' That's essentially what the N.C. 12 Task Force concluded in 2023. 'It was the consensus of the subcommittee that neither South Dock nor the roadway could be protected for many more years absent major engineering of the island,' it wrote in its final report. The group suggested moving the ferry dock closer to the village, south of the vulnerable stretch of highway, though it said more study was needed to find a location. NCDOT's options for landing Hatteras Inlet ferries on Ocracoke are all conceptual at this point, lacking both details and cost estimates. Once it decides later this year, the state still needs environmental permits and to find the money, which would be considerable if it must build a new fleet of larger boats. Dixon, the ferry division director, said the state could decide to work in steps, shoring up South Dock and the nearby section of N.C. 12 while it works on a longer-term solution. But there's a sense of urgency, as the waves continue to eat into the shoreline at South Dock. 'It's changed fast,' Dixon said. 'We just don't know where it stops. Is there some line where it's going to start gaining back at some point, or is it going to continue to lose? We don't know.' For more information about the South Dock study, including renderings of the four options, go to NC Reality Check is an N&O series holding those in power accountable and shining a light on public issues that affect the Triangle or North Carolina. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email realitycheck@
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
‘Flying blind': Florida weatherman tells viewers Trump cuts will harm forecasts
A leading TV weatherman in Florida has warned viewers on air that he may not be able to properly inform them of incoming hurricanes because of cuts by the Trump administration to federal weather forecasting. John Morales, a veteran meteorologist at NBC 6 South Florida, told viewers on Monday night that Donald Trump's cuts to climate and weather agencies mean that forecasters will be 'flying blind' into what is expected to be an active hurricane season. Recalling Hurricane Dorian, which devastated the Bahamas in 2019 and appeared to be heading straight for Florida, Morales said he was confidently able to assure worried viewers it would turn away from the state. Related: Key US weather monitoring offices understaffed as hurricane season starts 'I am here to tell you I'm not sure I can do that this year,' he said. 'Because of the cuts, the gutting, the sledgehammer attack on science in general.' Morales said that the attacks by the Trump administration on science would have a 'multigenerational impact on science in this country' and will specifically hamper his job due to the slashing of hundreds of jobs at the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa). 'Did you know central and south Florida National Weather Service offices are currently 20% to 40% understaffed, from Tampa to Key West?' Morales said, referencing the widespread staff shortages in weather service offices along the hurricane-prone Gulf of Mexico coast and Puerto Rico. 'This type of staffing shortage is having impacts across the nation because there has been a 20% reduction in weather balloon releases, launches. What we are starting to see is the quality of the forecast is becoming degraded.' TV forecasters such as Morales, as well as private weather forecasting services and apps, rely upon federal scientists for data gleaned from sources such as satellites, weather balloon launches and aircraft surveys. Morales warned viewers that Noaa 'hurricane hunter' aircraft may not be able to fly this year and 'with less reconnaissance we may be flying blind and we may not exactly know how strong a hurricane is before it reaches the coastline'. On Thursday, Morales told the Guardian that he stood by his statements and that the 'message was clear' to viewers. Asked if he was worried about retaliation from an administration that has sought to defund and disparage scientists, Morales said: 'No, not at all. Science is science.' Noaa has predicted that the US's hurricane season, which officially started on Sunday, will be more active than usual, with as many as five major hurricanes with winds of 111mph (179km/h) or more. This has heightened concerns over the consequences of funding cuts by Trump as part of the president's attempts to shrink the federal workforce. After losing 600 staff to layoffs and early retirements, causing it to admit to 'degraded operations' with fewer staff to handle forecasts, the National Weather Service was this week given special permission to hire 100 forecasters, radar technicians and others despite a government-wide hiring freeze. The Trump administration has insisted the American public will be properly informed of hurricane risks despite the cuts. But experts have said that much more will need to be done to ensure the weather service is not overstretched and for the US to become better prepared for extreme weather impacts that are escalating due to global heating. Trump has regularly dismissed the established science of climate change, calling it a 'giant hoax' and 'bullshit'. On air on Monday, Morales said viewers should rally to protect the National Weather Service. 'What you need to do is call your representatives and make sure these cuts are stopped,' he said.
USA Today
05-06-2025
- Climate
- USA Today
Trump budget cuts spark new hurricane season fears: 'A bad miss'
Trump budget cuts spark new hurricane season fears: 'A bad miss' A Miami TV meteorologist asked viewers to call Congress about NOAA's budget, fearing it harms hurricane forecasting. He's not the only one worried. Show Caption Hide Caption NOAA, FEMA cuts will impact hurricane season, experts warn The Trump administration's budget cuts at NOAA and FEMA will have an adverse affect on how the U.S. responds to hurricanes, experts warn. Meteorologist John Morales, a 34-year veteran TV weatherman in Miami, has urged his viewers to call their elected officials in Washington D.C., saying he fears federal government cuts will jeopardize the accuracy of hurricane forecasts this summer. After playing a clip of an August 2019 forecast where he reassured viewers that even though Hurricane Dorian appeared bound for Florida's East Coast it would turn northward and skirt the state, Morales said: "Confidently I went on TV and told you it's going to turn; you don't need to worry, it's going to turn." "I'm here to tell you that I'm not sure I can do that this year, because of the cuts, the gutting, the sledgehammering attack on science in general," Morale told his viewers at WTVJ, an ABC affiliate. "The quality of the forecasts is being degraded." More than 550 people left the service this year through rounds of probationary firings, incentivized departures and retirement offers by the Trump administration. As a result, more than a dozen weather service offices have reduced or eliminated the daily collection of data via weather balloons, while others shut down their overnight shifts and are sharing forecast duties among other offices. Asked to respond to Morales' plea, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, parent agency of the weather service, including the National Hurricane Center, defended the center and said it's taking steps to fill some of the staffing gaps at weather service offices around the country. The hurricane center "has a sufficient number of forecasters to fill mission-critical operational shifts during the 2025 hurricane season," and remains dedicated to its mission, said Erica Grow Cei, a meteorologist and public affairs specialist with the weather service. Although earlier in the year the federal firings of probationary employees at NOAA included two flight directors and a flight engineer with the agency's hurricane hunters program in Lakeland, Florida, those positions were later restored, shortly after the White House learned of the cuts from the news media. At the weather service, NOAA is conducting short-term temporary duty assignments and has offered reassignment opportunities to try to move people around to the most understaffed offices. Cei said the service also will soon advertise a number of permanent, mission-critical field positions despite an ongoing hiring freeze to "further stabilize frontline operations." 'A missed forecast' possible James Franklin, a retired former branch chief for hurricane specialists at the hurricane center, said he doesn't think anybody knows yet what will happen with forecasts this summer. "A lot depends on what happens with the budget going forward," Franklin said. However, by reducing the amount of critical data gathered in balloon launches in places across the country, "you increase the chances that model forecasts are going to have a bad miss." "It doesn't matter whether the sites missed are in Miami, Key West or Des Moines, Iowa," he said. "The point is you could miss data in the Midwest" that helps forecast features in the atmosphere that help steer hurricanes around as they approach the U.S. When they pass through an area with less coverage from the equipment launched in the balloons, the forecast might change a little bit and get degraded, he said. Instead of accurately predicting a storm striking Florida, for example, the forecast could change and turn the storm "out to sea because of a missed forecast." Weather service staffing shortages Weather service staffing already was tight, even before the Trump administration's cuts, former NOAA staff members have said, but in some weather service offices, the vacancies have been dramatic. "NOAA is still critically understaffed," said Brian LaMarre, who recently retired as meteorologist-in-charge of the Ruskin/Tampa weather service office and founded the consulting business Inspire Weather. Among the 122 forecast offices, almost a third are without a meteorologist-in-charge, LaMarre said. "Now that hurricane season is here, a lot more people are starting to hear about the challenges." Nationwide, more than a third of the offices are considered "critically understaffed," with vacancy rates of 20% or more, USA TODAY previously reported. Morales said the weather service offices in Central and South Florida are 20-40% understaffed. "What you need to do is call your representatives and make sure these cuts are stopped," said Morales, one of a number of meteorologists worried the widespread staffing shortages. "Never have we faced the combustible mix of a lack of meteorological data and the less accurate forecasts that follow, with an elevated propensity for the rapidly intensifying hurricanes of the manmade climate change era," he wrote in a post on June 1, the opening day of the annual Atlantic hurricane season. He quoted a letter penned earlier this year by five former weather service directors who said they fear a "needless loss of life" from the cuts. What happened with Hurricane Dorian? After pummeling the Bahamas as a Category Five hurricane, with winds of more than 170 mph, Dorian skirted Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, stirring up rough surf and eroding beaches. It eventually made landfall over Cape Hatteras, North Carolina on September 6, 2019. Although most of its worst winds were to the east, Dorian raked the Outer Banks with wind gusts of over 100 mph, before returning to the Atlantic Ocean, the hurricane center reported. The hurricane made another landfall as a strong, post-tropical cyclone in Nova Scotia on September 7. Before and after: Incredible images reveal Hurricane Dorian's destruction in the Bahamas Dinah Voyles Pulver, a national correspondent for USA TODAY, writes about hurricanes, violent weather and other environmental issues. Reach her at dpulver@ or @dinahvp on Bluesky or X or dinahvp.77 on Signal.
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Florida weatherman warns DOGE cuts will lead to less accurate hurricane forecasts
As the Atlantic basin enters what experts forecast will be an 'above-normal' hurricane season, a Florida weatherman has an unsettling message for locals. John Morales, a meteorologist at NBC 6 South Florida, told viewers Monday night that he will no longer be able to accurately predict hurricanes due to the Trump administration's drastic cuts to weather and climate agencies. Morales, who has over three decades of experience reporting on weather in South Florida, began the forecast with a clip of his 2019 coverage of Hurricane Dorian. In the clip, Morales assured residents that the storm would turn, sparing the state from a direct impact. Morales' forecast proved to be accurate, and Dorian did not make landfall in Florida. After playing the clip, Morales said that while he was able to go on television six years ago and 'confidently' tell residents the storm would turn, he did not believe he could do the same this hurricane season. 'And I am here to tell you that I am not sure that I can do that this year because of the cuts, the gutting, the sledgehammer attack on science in general,' Morales said. Trump's cuts have led to massive staffing shortages at National Weather Service offices across Central and South Florida. As a result, Morales explained, less data is being collected due to fewer weather balloon launches. 'And what we're starting to see is that the quality of the forecast is becoming degraded,' Morales said. According to Morales, the administration's cuts could also decrease the number of hurricane reconnaissance mission flights carried out by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The agency's website states, 'Information from both research and reconnaissance flights directly contribute to the safety of people living along and visiting the vulnerable Atlantic and Gulf coasts.' Without this information, Morales warned, 'We may be flying blind, and we may not exactly know how strong a hurricane is before it reaches the coastline.' In May, NOAA predicted six to 10 hurricanes could hit the Atlantic this season. While the Trump administration has dismissed concerns that staffing cuts will impact service during hurricane season, which spans from June 1 to Nov. 30, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that the agency is already being stretched thin. Around 1,000 people, or 10% of NOAA's workforce, have reportedly been cut in recent weeks. Morales ended his forecast by urging viewers to take action, telling those watching at home to 'call your representatives and make sure that these cuts are stopped.' You can watch Morales' full report below. This article was originally published on
