Nat'l Hurricane Center Staff Seeks to Remove Its Director

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/07/us/07hurricane.html?ex=1341460800&en=1e8a1351c3e23039&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Storm Center Staff Seeks to Remove Its Director

By KENNETH CHANG
Published: July 7, 2007

The director of the National Hurricane Center, who has for months traded barbs with his superiors at the National Weather Service headquarters in Maryland, now faces an insurrection from his staff in Miami.

On Thursday, 23 people, about half of the center’s staff members, signed a letter that calls for a new director and urges the Department of Commerce, which oversees the Weather Service, “to make this happen as quickly as possible.”

The letter continued, “The effective functioning of the National Hurricane Center is at stake.”

The center tracks tropical storms, and emergency response officials rely on its forecasts to determine which stretches of coastline should be evacuated. The unease at the center comes just a month into the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1 and runs through November.

The director, X. William Proenza, took the position in January, succeeding Max Mayfield, who retired.

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