July 7, 2025 Editor, The News-Gazette: The tragic Texas hill country flood occurring this past weekend reminds me that Rockbridge County is subject to floods too. Twenty three people died in Rockbridge County from the aftermath of Hurricane Camille in 1969, with an estimated property damage of $30 million. Would better forecasting and alert communication have altered our Camille tragedy?
The issue of the recent Trumpordered loss of 600 positions among weather forecasters and coordinators at the National Weather Service, impairing the ability of NWS to forecast and get the emergency message to the public, is painfully in view.
We have before us a tragedy that may become the first of many other avoidable tragedies that one can bring to mind (for one, think of HHS Robert Kennedy Jr. and the incompetence of the new vaccine committee during our next pandemic). Think about all those job cuts, at the departments of Homeland Security, Energy, Agriculture, Interior, Defense, and Treasury, as well as the Social Security Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, and Small Business Administration.
What else could happen? Plenty! And why these job cuts? To “balance the budget,” given the shortfall that occurs when Trump’s tax break for the rich is untouchable.
But surprise! The Congressional Budget Office says the national debt will increase about $3 trillion over the next 10 years.
I feel like crying; it’s all so unfair. FRED FEVIER, MD Walkers Creek District
