Local officials have learned the most effective way to address people's inaction bias is to bluntly tell them that if they don't evacuate, they should write their social security number on their arm in Sharpie so their loved ones can identify their body. It cuts through the bullshit.

Why am I telling this story? Well, for one reason, it's a research rabbithole I've fallen down before, and I like to share. But mostly, it's because the NWS forecast division is one of the many, many things that Project 2025 will do away with.

Saw a post about the Sharpie info writing from somewhere near Big Bend, FL, during Helene. Designed to shock. Aside: I’d been to New Orleans a year or so before Katrina so watching from the UK was additionally shocking - places I could visualise from before.