Houston forecaster gets hurricane center post

By ERIC BERGER
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
The chief of the local National Weather Service forecast office has been named acting deputy director of the National Hurricane Center.
Bill Read, meteorologist-in-charge of the Houston/Galveston forecasting office, was moved to the post as part of adjustments to the hurricane center's leadership, said Greg Romano, a spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The leadership changes follow the July departure Bill Proenza as the hurricane center's director. Prior to his removal Proenza faced criticisms of his management style by senior forecasters.
Ed Rappaport, a deputy director under both Proenza and former hurricane center director Max Mayfield, will continue serving as interim director for the duration of hurricane season, which ends Nov. 30.
Romano said "it's too early to tell" whether the changes will become permanent after that time.
Read applied for the director's job after Mayfield stepped down in late 2006, but NOAA managers eventually chose Proenza, the former director of the National Weather Service's Southern Region, which includes the Houston office.
The primary task of the hurricane center's deputy director is to serve as a liaison between the forecasters and emergency management officials. Read had extensive experience doing just that in Houston during tropical events such as Hurricane Rita and Tropical Storm Allison.
"Bill will do an excellent job interfacing with the emergency management community," said local forecaster Gene Hafele, who will become the interim meteorologist-in-charge of the Houston/Galveston weather office.
In addition to employee complaints by senior forecasters and other employees at the Miami-based hurricane center, federal officials ousted Proenza after half a year on the job following his criticism of NOAA.
Proenza said the federal agency, which oversees both the hurricane center and weather service, moved to slowly to replace an aging weather satellite and spent funds on a public relations campaign while hurricane forecasting and research operations faced tight budgets.

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I guess they got their cardboard cutout in there they want that will just smile and watch the equipment age instead of trying to do something about it....

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Well, whatever they did, it was a pretty safe bet that ANY future head of this agency would tread very, very lightly where criticism and controversy are concerned.

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