Federal Government Shutdown Shutters NOAA NGS OPUS Website

If you use the Federal Government OPUS website operated by NGS and NOAA, then you may already have discovered that the site is non-functional and have already seen the notice in the image shown here. If you needed OPUS for your land surveying work, but did not realize that the OPUS website has been shuttered, then you’ll need to start scrambling right away with alternative solutions.

The Federal notice replacing the usual OPUS website says the following:

Due to the Federal government shutdown,
NOAA.gov and most associated web sites
are unavailable.

Only web sites necessary to protect lives
and property will be maintained.

See Weather.gov for critical weather
information or contact USA.gov for more
information about the shutdown.

NOAA Federal Employees: For access to the
Notice to Federal Employees About Unemployment
Insurance (SF-8), please Click Here.

A few thoughts:

• Negotiate or not negotiate, government and politics are negotiations.
• Sure, OPUS is “non-essential” only if you ignore some of the use outcomes.
• The website is automated, so If one webpage can be loaded to post a notice (ie the power and web services are still on and running), then there is no additional cost to keeping the original site loaded.
• How is it acceptable to shutter the OPUS website but then add a link to another page with an unemployment form for Federal workers? Apparently, that’s “essential”.

One last thought: I wish no person diminished wages, particularly after experiencing that significantly first-hand, but when I hear Federal workers complain about furloughs, all I can think is – Welcome to the recession! It sucks, doesn’t it?

Now, how about the government with its massive resources in smart minds, money, and human capital start to solve a few problems instead of creating new ones!