In a statement, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said NOAA has “never been more prepared for hurricane season,” pointing to “advanced weather models and cutting-edge hurricane tracking systems” that should provide Americans with real-time storm forecasts and warnings.

For many people, Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of summer. But along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, it also means the start of hurricane season is nearly here. This particular hurricane season comes at a moment when NOAA and its agencies are being cut and facing their own turmoil.

A NOAA official says that “everything has ground to a halt” at the agency as staffers have waited for Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to review more than 200 agreements

House Democrats plan to introduce legislation overnight that would prevent further Trump administration cuts to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration funding or staffing after severe storms across the country drew attention to staffing cuts in National Weather Service field offices.

The chart above uses available NOAA data to show a meteoric rise in catastrophic events, largely due to severe storms like the ones currently hitting the South and Midwest. From 1980 to 2000, 96 disasters caused more than $546.