Misinformation about Hurricane Helene, which ravaged the south last week is the “worst” chief administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency Deanne Criswell has seen, she said as former President Donald Trump continues to spread falsehoods about the federal response to the disasters.
FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell told reporters Tuesday the misinformation around Hurricane Helene ... [+]
Misinformation about the government’s response to Hurricane Helene stems in large part from Trump and his allies claiming FEMA couldn’t respond appropriately to the storm because it diverted so much money to helping migrants—which is not true as the agency’s money is separate from money for immigration.
Criswell told reporters Tuesday the misinformation around the hurricane is “absolutely the worst I have ever seen” and is “creating distrust” in local and federal governments, Politico reported.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas did say after Helene that FEMA’s disaster relief funds are low and warned they may not make it through the hurricane season, but he did not express concerns about the Helene response, saying they were “meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have.”
X owner and Trump supporter Elon Musk has also been using his massive platform to spread misinformation, claiming to his 200 million followers last week FEMA was not allowing supplies to be delivered—in response, the agency said the FAA “is not restricting access for recovery operations” but was trying to keep the skies safe as they’ve busied in recovery efforts.
Other rumors that have spread—all of which the agency has said are not accurate—include that FEMA only gives loans to disaster survivors, FEMA has been withholding aid from areas that have historically voted Republican, FEMA is seizing land from survivors applying for assistance and FEMA is only giving $750 to disaster survivors to support their recovery.
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FEMA recently launched a website dedicated to correcting misinformation about the response to Helene on which it corrects falsehoods, encourages people to be “aware of rumors and scams and (to share) official information from trusted sources.”
Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region on Sept. 26. It has killed at least 220 people across six states and caused extreme damage in a number of towns in the southeast, including Asheville, North Carolina, the AP reported. Millions of people were without power in the days following the storm, and more than 111,000 people were still without power in North Carolina as of Tuesday, according to poweroutage.us. The Biden administration mobilized 1,500 troops to assist National Guard and federal personnel in their recovery responses, and had given out more than $137 million in federal assistance as of Sunday. Both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris visited the southeast last week to survey the damage and meet with leaders, and Trump visited Valdosta, Georgia, and said he brought “truckloads of things” like water and equipment to Georgia, Reuters reported. Trump almost immediately made the response to Helene political when he visited Georgia—a key battleground state in November—and alleged Biden had not called Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, despite Kemp saying earlier that day he had spoken to Biden. The president responded by saying Trump’s lies were “irresponsible” and that the White House was doing everything it could to assist in recovery.
“It’s un-American,” Biden said Tuesday of political figures who spread misinformation about the hurricane response. “It misleads people, it puts people in circumstances where they panic, where they really really really worry, they think ‘I’m not being taken care of.’”
Harris criticized Trump for continuing to spread misinformation, saying on Monday it was “extraordinarily irresponsible” of him to push false information about what is available to survivors and those impacted by the storm, the Associated Press reported.
Harris also criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for not taking her calls about the incoming Category 4 Hurricane Milton, saying “people are in desperate need of support right now and playing political games at this moment in these crisis situations … is utterly irresponsible.” DeSantis later pushed back on Harris’ criticism, saying “she has no role in this” and that he has been in touch with President Joe Biden to prepare for Milton.
How misinformation spreads with Hurricane Milton. Milton is expected to make landfall in Florida on Tuesday as a Category 4 hurricane after being downgraded from a Category 5. Officials have warned “Milton will remain an extremely dangerous hurricane when it reaches the state,” and much of Florida was under hurricane warnings, hurricane watches or tropical storm warnings as of Tuesday afternoon.