The ostrich has an interesting, if not entirely earned, reputation. When danger comes along, he puts his head in the sand. That way the danger will avoid him.

The wisdom of this plan is catching on in Washington. For years, Florida has been plagued by tropical storms and hurricanes. They have become so common that there is even a hurricane-tracking website.

Hurricanes often cause problems. For instance, this past year, one wiped out much of the Big Bend before flooding much of the area around Asheville, North Carolina. The worst was probably the Labor Day storm of 1935, which washed out the Overseas Extension and, in fact, nearly everything on the Middle Keys.

Occasionally, there are other weather problems, such as tornadoes, blizzards and dust storms. It is often better to be home before these things arrive. Fortunately, we do not generally have a lot of blizzards in Florida.

Now, it would be hard to be sure. The weather station at the airport was offline for the past few days with no further information. That might be part of the new DOGE improvements.

I know that they have targeted the National Weather Service. Their reasoning, however, appears to be that they do not like the weather being delivered. Sorry, Elmo, but NOAA does not make the weather, they just report it.

There should be no hurricanes for the next few months. Generally, they come along after the oceans have warmed up for the summer. That is still a few months out.

In the past, the weather service would keep an eye on these things. That was before Elmo and his Muskies cut a quarter of the weather service on their way to a complete shutdown.

You can still go in the backyard and look at the sky. Most of the time that works about as well. And, if this year we have no hurricanes, then DOGE will count elimination of the weather service as a great success.

But, if there are hurricanes, lack of warning increases the hazard. Nevermind the ostrich. Humans do not survive hurricanes merely by burying their heads. Prudent people make that emergency run to the liquor store before things get ugly.

I know what people say about the weather, everybody talks about it. And I can tell what the executive branch are thinking up in Washington — someone is finally doing something about it.

— Andrews is a DeLand-area attorney and a longtime government critic. For purposes of the column, he finds it convenient that there is so much government to criticize.