(MintPress)— While damages from natural disasters have been climbing to record highs in the U.S. over the last few years and experts are predicting another active tornado season for 2012, Republicans are acting to cut spending on government agencies that help predict and mitigate damages from severe storms.
Tornadoes cut across Texas Tuesday, tossing semi trailers in the air, crunching cars and razing hundreds of houses. The National Weather Service said nearly a dozen twisters touched down, leaving a trail of debris across Dallas and Fort Worth earlier this week.
Thousands were left without power and hundreds of homes were destroyed. However, despite the veracity of the storm system, only a handful of people were hurt across Texas, a couple of them seriously, but no fatalities have been reported.
However, rescuers planned to scour the area Wednesday, looking for anyone who may be trapped in the debris.
Damage estimates are still being calculated in Texas.
Record Damages, Big Cuts
So far this year in the U.S., insurers have lost $2 billion due to tornadoes, and experts point out it’s still very early in the season.
Last year record-breaking losses of $26 billion in damages were attributed to tornadoes during the 2011 tornado season.
But Republicans have been scaling back on funding to aid Americans struggling in the aftermath of disasters like those in Texas this week.
However, House Republicans are drawing criticism for having spearheaded funding cuts for studying the climate, predicting violent storms, early storm warnings, and assistance in helping communities minimize damage and loss of life.
A total of $140 billion was nixed from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Commission, an agency responsible for monitoring the climate and helping to minimize damage and loss of life during storms.
In addition, another $500 million was cut from last year’s GOP budget which was to be used for weather prediction satellites.
GOP members also proposed mammoth funding cuts to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) , the agency charged with coordinating the response to disasters that occur in the United States and overwhelm the resources of local and state authorities. Republicans had proposed cutting more than half the previous year’s amount, effectively leaving FEMA with less than one-third of its 2010 budget.
To receive FEMA’s help – a state may declare a state of emergency and request help from the president.
This year Republicans are calling for similar budget cuts, as “economists who analyzed it have concluded that in a few years there will be virtually no funds for any government activity except a growing military budget and spending that’s mandated by law,” a report in the Huffington Post points out.
FEMA Not Seen As Valuable by Republicans
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has said that federal disaster relief for tornado and flood victims in America was “immoral” and believes that FEMA should be privatized.
At a GOP debate held in June, Romney proclaimed that the victims of devastating storms and flooding across the US last year in states such as Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, and his home state of Massachusetts should not receive governmental assistance.
And Romney isn’t alone in his anti-FEMA rhetoric. Another presidential hopeful, Ron Paul said while on the campaign trail, “I live on the Gulf Coast. We put up with hurricanes all the time. There’s no magic about FEMA. More and more people are starting to recognize that.”
Paul has been critical of the agency for some time, calling it a “great contributor to deficit financing, ” according to CNN. He wants to do away with the entity completely, telling the news service last May, “Why should somebody from the central part of the United States rebuild my house? Why shouldn’t I have to buy my own insurance and protect about the potential dangers.”
Democrats and Republicans have been at odds over monetary allocations to the agency increasingly in recent times. Back in September the political parties sparred in Washington, ultimately signing off to spend $7 billion on a bill that granted funds for emergency disaster relief over the year. Republicans believed the bill’s emergency spending was too costly.
The Washington Post quoted Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) as saying, “We can spend hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan. Let’s spend a small amount of money to rebuild America for Americans.”
More Storms Predicted in 2012
Experts warn that that this spring Americans could continue to see active weather systems and even more severe weather, stemming from a warmer than normal spring.
Joe Lundberg, senior meteorologist at AccuWeather.com in State College, Pa. says, “This year conditions are more conducive than normal for extreme weather. We are getting off to an early and nasty start,” the Christian Science Monitor reported.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said that in February 57 tornadoes were reported across the US, nearly twice the 1991-2010 average of 29. The extreme weather also spilled over into March, as in southern Indiana, 13 people died after an F4 tornado roared through the state.
Last year in the nation nearly 1,700 tornadoes were recorded, a marked uptick form a normal year, in which there are generall an average of 1,300 tornadoes on the books.
There were 550 tornado deaths in the US during 2011. The May tornado that wiped out Joplin, Missouri killed 161. Another storm system took 316 lives on April 27 in five southern states.
And FEMA acknowledges that at this rate, given its current funding, it will likely be unable to meet the need of potential future victims.
“We cannot afford to continue to respond to disasters and deal with the consequences under the current model,” said Mr. Fugate in a speech at the National Press Club in Washington.
FEMA recently has turned down Illinois’ second request for federal aid after a tornado ripped through Harrisburg, Ill. back in February, killing seven people. Over 50 people have already been killed by storms this year in the US.
And, the peak months for tornadoes are usually April, May and June, so this season is just getting started.
Experts who study the climate are at odds about the long term effects of rising temperatures and its impact on weather patterns however. Some say we can expect more extreme weather if global temperatures continue to rise, while others believe there’s too little data to predict a single season.