More are expected to follow as early as Sunday. Each night, their responsibilities for monitoring conditions and issuing warnings will be handed off to neighboring offices. For a workforce deeply committed to its lifesaving mission, the crisis has pushed morale and resilience to the breaking point.

Critical staffing gaps have hit offices along the Eastern Seaboard, Gulf Coast, and Central Valley including in Texas, Louisiana, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Kansas. Forecast centers in Hanford and Sacramento have already gone dark overnight, with coastal offices forced to pick up the slack.