Hurricane Irene is the tenth weather related event this year that has done more than a billion dollars in damage, the most billion dollar disasters ever. The situation is made worse by Republicans cutting funding for the Weather Service resources need to maintain our current level of forecast capability, and their generally anti-science attitude.

Congress cut funding for FEMA, and now members are angry that the money isn’t available, as McClatchy reports: Missouri Senators angry that FEMA cutbacks affect Joplin tornado repairs

One of the first jobs facing Congress when it returns to work will be finding billions of dollars to pay for damage caused by a summer of natural disasters stretching from Joplin to the Jersey Shore.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is suspending payments for some projects in tornado-ravaged Joplin because of immediate disaster needs along the East Coast after Hurricane Irene. Some spending for other storm-related and flood-related damage in other parts of the country also has been delayed.

A FEMA spokesman said Monday that the agency’s disaster fund has dipped well below $1 billion.

The Republican Majority Leader in the House has said that there will be no disaster money unless there are cuts somewhere else. How about the Congressional payroll, health care, and pension funding?

Position: 13.3N 37.5W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: West-Northwest [285°] near 22 mph [35 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 60 mph [ 95 kph].
Wind Gusts: 70 mph [110 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 85 miles [140 km].
Minimum central pressure: 997 mb.

Currently about 885 miles [1425 km] West of the southernmost Cape Verde Islands.

As forecast Tropical Depression Twelve has become a Tropical Storm, and the intensity forecasts say it should become another major hurricane. Currently the models track North of the Antilles, but where it goes from there becomes more of a guess than a forecast.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]