"Any time you can get science to people who can then act on it, you’re doing the right thing."
As thousands of Floridians fled beach communities before Hurricane Helene, Michael Slattery rushed toward them.
In the final hours before Tampa Bay’s worst storm in a century, Slattery was on Madeira Beach drilling pressure sensors deep into the sand.
The data collected from these devices helped local governments, first responders and the public better understand how hurricane storm surge threatens low-lying coastal cities, including in Pinellas County.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s team of scientists, including Slattery, helped accurately predict that Pinellas beaches would be over washed by surge, sending thousands of pounds of sand into homes and businesses.
Slattery, who has 20 years of scientific research experience and was a University of Tampa professor for nearly a decade, was fired Feb. 14 amid the expansive push by President Donald Trump’s administration to cut the federal workforce.
He joins the growing list of fired park rangers, scientists and wildlife refuge workers within the U.S. Interior Department whose careers were dedicated to Florida’s natural spaces — and humans’ place within them. More than 2,000 department workers have been fired in recent weeks.
Read more at the Tampa Bay Times