National Weather Service hiring again months after Trump job cuts

DETROIT (FOX 2) - The National Weather Service is hiring. They've been given the green light by the Trump administration to bring back critical positions.

One former employee says she foresaw this happening.

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Some of the cuts are being reversed. FOX 2 spoke with Nicole Rice, a former employee of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She says she's glad to see it.

"I’m surprised it took this long, to be honest with you, with the National Weather Service because it’s 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. But not surprised that it’s happening," she said.

Months prior, the Trump Administration nixed hundreds of jobs at NOAA, including the National Weather Service. But Thursday, the NWS announced they're hiring once again, over 400 positions, to be exact, they say.

"When they went through and kind of slashed and burned without thinking about the actual implications of who they were getting rid of, we knew this would come back eventually where they say, ‘Oh no, what have we done,’" she said. 

Nicole Rice says she’s grateful to see it but knew this would happen. She once worked at NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab in Saline and was laid off in February.

"I was at a doctor's appointment and I didn’t even get to go clean my office out that day. I had to go the following week to clean my office," she said. "So I had 10 years of work to clean out."

She says it devastated the lab where scientists and technicians research how the lakes interact with the atmosphere. Without proper research at any of the NOAA labs, it can lead to tragedies, like the deadly flash floods that happened in early July in Kerr County, Texas. Over 100 people died.

"We said that from day one," she said. "It’s going to take a tragedy, be it a national weather tragedy or some other worldwide tragedy, that it’s going to take to awaken people."

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Rice believes it may have led to the Trump Administration allowing the National Weather Service to hire again. 

While she has not been offered her job back, she’s going to continue to look and get the word out about how important weather services are.

"So it’s been really difficult for folks," she said. "I know a couple of folks have gotten jobs in different sectors and different technology work that they’ve been working on. It’s wonderful that they’ve been able to do that, but many of us are still looking for jobs."

Rice is a city councilwoman. She goes on speaking engagements around Metro Detroit, educating folks about weather research and services. Some of the positions being offered at the NWS include meteorologists and radar technicians.