After hurricanes, FEMA confronts a different kind of flood: Misinformation

Federal agencies responding to natural disasters are used to being called incompetent when help arrives too slowly for frustrated communities. But the deadly hurricanes that have pummeled Florida, North Carolina, and Georgia over the past two weeks are stirring accusations not just of tardiness but also of outright treason.

A flood of online misinformation, conspiracies, and falsehoods – worse than any they’ve seen before, officials say – has been undermining efforts to assist victims of Hurricane Helene and now Hurricane Milton, which made landfall Wednesday night in Florida. Much of it is directed at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which coordinates disaster relief with local and state agencies. FEMA has had to rebut falsehoods in a dedicated page on its website, and government officials have scrambled to get messages out to concerned residents.

Among the baseless claims circulating online: allegations that FEMA is prioritizing nonwhite citizens in providing assistance, that the federal government is seizing storm-hit properties, even that the government deliberately caused the storm.

“There’s been reckless and irresponsible and relentless promotion of disinformation and outright lies about what’s going on,” President Joe Biden said on Wednesday. “It’s harmful to those who most need the help.”

Mr. Biden blamed former President Donald Trump directly for amplifying some of the lies.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly accused the Biden-Harris administration of diverting FEMA disaster relief funds into housing for migrants. “They stole the FEMA money just like they stole it from a bank, so they could give it to their illegal immigrants that they want to have vote for them,” he said at a rally last week in Michigan.

There is no evidence for this claim. A GOP-run House committee released a statement saying funding for migrant shelters is entirely separate from disaster funds. And noncitizens are not eligible to vote in federal elections.

Mr. Trump has also leaned into an unfounded rumor that the $750 cash handout FEMA provides to storm-affected individuals for immediate, basic needs is the only government money survivors will receive. “They’re offering them $750, to people whose homes have been washed away,” he said at a rally in Pennsylvania. “Think of it: We give foreign countries hundreds of billions of dollars and we’re handing North Carolina $750.”

As FEMA has explained, the $750 is just an initial payment; affected individuals can apply for much more assistance, to help cover everything from temporary housing to home repairs.

A related claim that FEMA is running out of money, on the other hand, may prove to be accurate. Congress authorized $20 billion in disaster funds last month, but FEMA chief Deanne Criswell said on Wednesday that the agency has already spent nearly half the money allocated for this fiscal year.

On Wednesday, Mr. Trump posted on his Truth Social site that “western North Carolina, and the whole state, for that matter, has been totally and incompetently mismanaged by Harris/Biden. They can’t get anything done properly, but I will make up for lost time, and do it right, when I get there.”

Some Republicans pushing back

It isn’t unusual for false information to circulate after a natural disaster. Rumors about a government land grab also spread in Hawaii last year after the wildfires on Maui. Partisan bickering about federal responses to storms is also part of the political playbook. But the power and reach of the rumors appears to have grown.

Notably, some Republican officials have publicly pushed back on the conspiracy theories, urging residents not to believe them and lamenting the real-world consequences of social media falsehoods. Rep. Chuck Edwards, a Republican who represents a district in western North Carolina that endured the deadliest hit from Hurricane Helene, published a remarkable letter to constituents Tuesday rebutting an extensive list of rumors while defending FEMA’s response and detailing how its programs work.

Mr. Edwards is no fan of federal agencies; his website shows him holding a wrench with a slogan, “Fixing How Washington Works.” He wrote in his letter that FEMA’s response has had “shortfalls” but said that “hoaxes, conspiracy theories, and hearsay about hurricane response efforts” were sparking chaos in communities.

In Florida, where FEMA was helping prepare for Hurricane Milton on Wednesday, Republican officials tried to combat online rumors about evacuation orders and property seizures. Gov. Ron DeSantis urged residents to “be careful about the nonsense that just gets circulated.”

Christina Pushaw, the governor’s spokesperson, warned that such claims posed a real danger on the eve of a catastrophic storm. In a post on X, the Elon Musk-owned platform that has been a major amplifier of hurricane-related misinformation, she wrote, “Spreading LIES like this could have serious consequences” if residents in evacuation zones refuse to leave, putting “their own lives (& lives of first responders) at grave risk.”

On Thursday, Ms. Criswell, the FEMA head, credited government officials with helping to tamp down some of the misinformation around Hurricane Milton, after seeing the alarming impact of online rumors in the wake of Hurricane Helene. “We’ve had such great support from governors and congressional members, local leaders really helping to push back on that misinformation,” Ms. Criswell said. “We did see a decrease, even though there were still some voices out there trying to spread these lies, which is really unfortunate.”

Distrust in mainstream media

Declining trust in mainstream media, mostly on the political right, and the rise of online influencers trying to go viral in a frenetic news cycle have made it harder for agencies like FEMA to communicate with the public during disasters. Intelligence agencies have warned that hostile foreign powers are pushing divisive content online during the U.S. election campaign, though experts say it’s too soon to know the origins of the hurricane-related rumors.

What is clear, however, is that FEMA has to invest resources in rebutting rumors, potentially at the expense of other urgent tasks in responding to disasters, says Joseph Blevins, a professor of communications at the University of Cincinnati who studies social media.

“FEMA has to be prepared now. They need a web team to get this information out there. But the truth is always at a disadvantage when it’s chasing a falsehood,” he says.

FEMA isn’t the only federal agency battling online rumors. Last weekend, Mr. Musk, a Trump backer who frequently posts false and misleading content on X, reposted claims that the Federal Aviation Administration was blocking flights into Helene-affected regions, including some carrying satellite equipment provided by Mr. Musk’s company, Starlink. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg responded to Mr. Musk’s posts by calling him to explain that the airspace was open but being managed by air traffic control to avoid collisions and speed up deliveries.

“Thanks for the call. Hopefully, we can resolve this soon,” Mr. Musk wrote. But course corrections by online influencers – Mr. Musk has tens of millions of followers – are rare.

Researchers say the slew of online invective surrounding hurricane response has included credible threats against federal officials and calls for militias to confront FEMA and its responders. The rumors have also been laced with antisemitic hate speech directed at Jewish officials, such as the mayor of Asheville, North Carolina. For far-right influencers, disasters are “moments of crisis” that allow them to “co-opt the news cycle” and reach wider audiences with disinformation and hate, according to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a London-based think tank.

Partisan shots at federal agencies are par for the course, says Professor Blevins, co-author of “Social Media, Social Justice, and the Political Economy of Online Networks.” But the impact on FEMA from misinformation now goes beyond the partisan blame game in Washington.

“You’re hurting people who’ve had their homes destroyed,” he says. “There’s real harm that’s being done to people, and that’s the tragedy.”