(The Hill) - With hurricane season officially underway, worries are mounting around whether President Trump’s cuts to the federal government have endangered the nation’s disaster response. The concern is particularly pronounced on the Gulf Coast, where ominous storm systems are already beginning to form amid widespread staffing shortages at the area’s critical weather stations.

The anxiety found a new focus this week after David Richardson, the Trump-appointed head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), reportedly told employees that he wasn't aware the U.S. even had a hurricane season. The Department of Homeland Security promptly dismissed those reported comments, which came at the eve of a forecasted above-average season, as a “joke.”

But the job cuts at federal agencies th

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