The Trump administration may end leases for some of NOAA's offices while the agency terminates several advisory committees at the important weather and climate agency.

Mark Eakin, a recently retired NOAA veteran who ran its Coral Reef Watch program for many years, told the Miami Herald he was alarmed by the “indiscriminate” slashes throughout the agency, which oversees everything from cutting-edge climate research to day-to-day operations that farmers and fishers rely on, as well as life-saving weather warnings.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday he supports DOGE, but also praised the National Hurricane Center and said it will probably be "OK."

The Trump administration cut about 600 workers at the National Weather Service and NOAA. That could hinder work on programs designed for public safety, former employees said.

When combined with Trump's federal hiring freeze, recently terminated NOAA staff said the cuts put their organization on a trajectory to break.

NBC6 spoke to employees of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who were shocked to hear they were laid off because their work is vital for public safety

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was hit with significant layoffs this week, with hundreds of employees terminated in another round of job cuts spearheaded by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under the Trump administration that has sparked backlash from many weather experts.

Brad Reinhart, Senior Hurricane Specialist at the National Hurricane Center, works on tracking Hurricane Beryl, the first hurricane of the 2024 season, at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Fla., on July 01, 2024. Credit - Joe Raedle / Getty Images

Former NOAA officials warned that jobs cuts undermine critical weather forecasting and basic science that companies and communities rely on.

Thursday's mass firings at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — including nearly two dozen on Virginia Key and more than 600 nationwide — could stall improvements to hurricane forecasting and delay seasonal outlooks.

“Today is a sad and scary day for meteorology,” Grant Tosterud, a meteorologist for KRQE in Alburquerque, New Mexico, said in a Feb. 27 Facebook post. “These NOAA and National Weather Service employees are critical to public safety and weather forecasting. These agencies are already understaffed and these cuts will put (people’s) lives at risk.”

That includes Andrew Hazleton, who was a NOAA contract employee at the University of Miami working with the Hurricane Research Division but recently joined NOAA's Environmental Modeling Center ...