As emergency crews work to help people experiencing grave losses after Hurricane Helene, a wave of misinformation has accompanied relief efforts, heightened by an existential election just a month away.
The upcoming election has ramped up the misinformation, a common thread of which happens after most big news events. These claims have found believers – or at least opportunistic fans – among top Republicans, who are now tying an unprecedented disaster to issues like immigration.
“There’s no question that this level of falsehoods would not be spread were there not an election a month away,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council.
The falsehoods started quickly and came from the top. Donald Trump, freshly landed in Georgia on Monday to see the storm’s devastation, claimed that the state’s governor, Brian Kemp, had not been able to reach Joe Biden to talk about disaster aid. Kemp had already said earlier in the day that he’d spoken to the president, who offered any help the state needed and said to call him directly.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) put up a webpage this week to knock down the swirl of rumors it has faced – a sign of the increased myths. The American Red Cross posted on social media to dispel various falsehoods about its work. Members of Congress and state emergency management services have issued statements to insist they are working around the clock on disaster response. Elected officials who serve the area have asked constituents not to spread rumors and instead help each other.
Kevin Corbin, a Republican state senator from North Carolina, posted on Facebook a plea to his followers: “Friends can I ask a small favor? Will you all help STOP this conspiracy theory junk that is floating all over Facebook and the internet about the floods.”
The claims that the government is controlling the weather, that the government has denied orders for more body bags – it was all “junk”, he said, and local lawmakers are being inundated with questions about these conspiracies. “It is just a distraction to people trying to do their job. Folks, this is a catastrophic event of which this country has never known.”
On Fema’s rumors page, the agency notes that it isn’t confiscating property or donations, asking for cash donations or capping recovery funds at $750 per person – all claims that are floating around online and, in some cases, elevated by rightwing media and Republican politicians.
“There are many dangerous, misleading rumors spreading about Helene response, which can actively prevent survivors from getting help,” a Fema spokesperson, Jaclyn Rothenberg, said. “Our top priority is ensuring that disaster assistance is reaching people in need.”
Glenn Jacobs, the Republican mayor of Knox county, Tennessee, said that to his knowledge, no one had been confiscating supplies. “Please quit spreading those rumors as they are counterproductive to response efforts,” he said. “If everyone could maybe please put aside the hate for a bit and pitch in to help, that would be great.”
Elon Musk, the owner of X and key Trump ally, claimed Fema was blocking flights trying to aid the area, calling it “belligerent government incompetence”. The transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, responded: “No one is shutting down the airspace and FAA doesn’t block legitimate rescue and recovery flights. If you’re encountering a problem give me a call.”
An AI-generated image of a young girl holding a puppy, looking devastated as she sat in a boat in the rain, seemingly fleeing the flood waters, spread widely. It was rightly flagged as AI-generated, but some didn’t seem to care.
“This picture has been seared into my mind,” Amy Kremer, an RNC national committeewoman from Georgia, posted on X. She later added: “Y’all, I don’t know where this photo came from and honestly, it doesn’t matter,” saying it was “emblematic” of the reality people were facing.
One myth amplified in the last few days suggests Fema is out of money because it has spent money on migrants instead, a claim that Trump and many of his allies have amplified. The story was on the cover of the New York Post.
Fema is not out of money – yet. The homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, did say earlier this week that the agency, confronting an increase in extreme weather events due to the climate crisis, will not have enough money for the remainder of the hurricane season, he said “we are meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have” for Helene.
The migrant claim, however, is unrelated to Fema’s budget concerns. A separate fund, the Shelter and Services Program, administered by Fema per Congress’s directive, provides reimbursements to local governments as they deal with increased costs associated with an influx of migrants, Reichlin-Melnick said. It does not take money from disaster response. This fund started in 2019 under Trump’s administration.
Reichlin-Melnick said this was an “utterly false claim” that had taken off in the past few days “because we are in a time of conspiratorial thinking, and migrants are the enemy for many on the right”.
“The response is taking some time due to these very real logistical problems caused by the geography of the region and the severity of the damage,” he said. “And the federal government hasn’t been able to snap its fingers and repair things overnight … And I think you have seen a number of politicians falsely seize on this, in an effort to essentially link migrants to the hurricane.”
Beyond the falsehoods with at least some link to reality, there have been suggestions that the hurricane was somehow planned or orchestrated, perhaps related to the upcoming election. This far-right fringe idea largely stayed in the darker corners of the conspiratorial internet – until Friday.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a sitting congresswoman, tweeted on Friday: “Yes they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.” She did not specify who “they” referred to. She had previously tweeted a map of the areas devastated by the hurricane overlaid with an electoral map to show which way these areas have voted.
There are plenty of real issues for the people affected by Helene, including voting, and a disaster this close to the election certainly can play a role in voter turnout and access. Elections officials on the ground are working to ensure people will be able to cast a ballot, even if they have lost their identification or ballots sent via mail.
“We do not have all the answers right now,” Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the North Carolina state election board, told the media this week. “But we are diligently working to figure them out.”
