President Donald Trump's relentless and false claim that Hurricane Dorian was on track to batter Alabama as the powerful storm chugged toward the US in early September threw employees at government agencies into a chaotic, stressful predicament as they struggled to navigate a barrage of media requests, hate mail, and requests for direction from their own confused staff, according to internal emails released Thursday.

For five days, Trump insisted that the hurricane posed a danger to Alabama residents, flouting a doctored, old map (which he altered with a Sharpie) during a televised press briefing, and lashing out at reporters and weather experts who fact-checked his claim.

The debacle pitted the National Weather Service's Birmingham office — which, in response to an onslaught of phone calls "from partners and the public out of the blue," had tweeted that Alabama was not in any danger from the hurricane — against the agency that oversees it, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

On Sept. 6, NOAA issued a statement backing the president's claims, which outraged meteorologists and weather experts across the US and, according to a cache of emails, created a hellish environment for federal employees trying to prepare for an incoming hurricane.

Their communications, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, provide a rare behind-the-scenes look into how the president's politicizing of a weather event upended and overwhelmed the federal agency tasked with informing the public at a critical time.

In dozens of emails over the course of a week, NOAA personnel described being "targeted" by reporters and members of the public peppering their personal social media profiles, LinkedIn accounts, and email addresses with questions and angry diatribes, and even shutting off their cellphones due to the high volume of calls "pouring in."

The employees forwarded strong rebukes from the public, claiming that the agencies had "lost all credibility" and done untold damage to NOAA's reputation.

"We are not responding, but I wanted leadership to have the best situational awareness of the fallout," Susan Buchanan, the director of public affairs at the National Weather Service, wrote on Sept. 7 about agency staff. “People are finding us on LinkedIn and targeting us with hate mail from there as well.”

