Vernon Ehlers: “Often the public asks us what we do with all their tax money and why do we waste it so much. There are a good many…”

“Often the public asks us what we do with all their tax money and why do we waste it so much. There are a good many things that the Federal Government does that are very, very good for people. This is one example of that. Funding NOAA is a very worthwhile enterprise. Given the statistics that the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Miller) gave and the statistics that I gave compared to what we do today, you can extend that to tornados as well and other types of disasters. The average lead time for tornados was 10 minutes during Hurricane Ivan, and frequently it is earlier than that for tornados in the Midwest where I live. Flash flood warnings average 57 minutes; 38 tornados occurred across Florida during Hurricane Ivan, so we really saved a lot of lives in this particular case; and it makes the expenditures for NOAA look small by comparison. It does save lives. It does save properties. It saves injuries, and it is very important for us to continue that.”