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Emails Show FalloutFromTrump's Claims About Dorian

Associated Press

   WASHINGTON - A flurry of newly released emails from scientists and top
   officials at the federal agency responsible for weather forecasting
   clearly illustrates the consternation and outright alarm caused by
   President Donald Trump's falseclaimthatHurricane Dorian could hit
   Alabama.

   A top National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration official even
   called the president's behavior "crazy."

   What the scientists and officials found even more troubling was a
   statement later issued by an unnamed NOAA spokesman that supported
   Trump's claim and repudiated the agency's own forecasters.

   The emails, released late Friday in response to Freedom of Information
   Act requests from The Associated Press and others, give an inside
   picture of the scramble to respond to the president and the turmoil it
   caused inside the federal agency.

   'Flabbergasted'

   "What's next? Climate science is a hoax?" Craig McLean, NOAA's acting
   chief scientist, wrote in an email sent to the agency's top officials.
   "Flabbergasted to leave our forecasters hanging in the political wind."

   In a more formal letter, McLean wrote that what concerned him most was
   that the Trump administration "is eroding the public trust in NOAA for
   an apparent political recovery from an ill-timed and imprecise comment
   from thepresident."

   As Dorian headed for the southeastern U.S. in early September, Trump
   tweeted that Alabama was "most likely to be hit (much) harder than
   anticipated." The National Weather Service in Birmingham corrected him,
   tweeting that "Alabama will NOT see any impacts from#Dorian."

   But Trump remained adamant, and NOAA came to his defense with the
   unsigned statement, which claimed some data provided to the president
   had indicated that Alabama could be hit by the hurricane and scolded
   the Birmingham office. The statement was issued after the White House
   and Commerce Department intervened, the AP and others reported at the
   time.

   Irate notes

   It provoked angry emails from within the agency and from the public.

   Gary Shigenaka, a NOAA scientist, wrote to the agency's acting
   administrator, Neil Jacobs, asking him to "reassure those of us who
   serve the public ... that we are not mere pawns in an absurd game."

   In response, Jacobs defended the forecasters and said, "You have no
   idea how hard I'm fighting to keep politics out of science."

   The whole incident is perhaps best remembered for what became known as
   Sharpie-gate. In defending himself in the Oval Office, Trump
   displayedanNOAA map that was altered using a black marker to extend the
   hurricane's projected path.

   "Apparently thepresident is convinced that Alabama was in the path of
   Dorian and someone altered a NOAA map (with a sharpie) to convince
   folks," NOAA official Makeda Okolo wrote in an email to chief operating
   officer Benjamin Friedman and others.

   Friedman replied: "Yep, crazy."

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