Disinformation and hoaxes about Hurricane Helene are hindering economic recovery

WASHINGTON — The facts emerging from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene are heartbreaking: businesses and homes destroyed, entire communities nearly destroyed, hundreds dead, hundreds of people missing.

However, extremist groups, disinformation agents, traffickers and politicians are using the disaster to spread false claims and conspiracy theories about it and the government’s response.

According to former President Donald Trump, the federal government is deliberately withholding aid for Republican disaster victims. Far-right extremist groups have warned on social media that officials plan to demolish affected communities with bulldozers and take away residents’ land. The science fiction story goes that Washington used weather control technology to steer Helene toward Republican voters in order to swing the presidential election to Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.

These claims, say experts and local disaster response officials, say less about the reality of Helene’s widespread damage and more about America’s fractured politics and the fear and distrust that surrounds an election year marked by assassination attempts and escalating global tensions.

Debunking conspiracy theories takes time for corrective efforts

As the rescue operation continues and authorities try to separate fact from fiction, conspiracy theories are not helping. Elected leaders from both parties had to explain the situation and urge people not to give in to fear and rumors.

“If everyone could put aside their hate and commit to helping, it would be great,” wrote Glenn Jacobs, a retired professional wrestler known as Kane who is now the Republican mayor of Knox County, Tennessee. Jacobs’ post was intended to deny rumors that Federal Emergency Management Agency employees were taking over humanitarian aid from private citizens.

Many conspiracy theories focus on hard-hit North Carolina, a key state in winning the White House. There were rumors that FEMA was raiding donations from the storm and withholding body bags, forcing local hospitals to pile up victims’ bodies. One claim suggested that federal authorities would condemn the entire town of Chimney Rock and prohibit relocations to take over a nearby valuable lithium mine.

False claims about blocked humanitarian flights and aid denied to Republicans

Elon Musk, owner of Tesla, X and SpaceX, wrote that the Federal Aviation Administration was blocking private humanitarian flights to North Carolina, a claim that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg dismissed as false.

Despite a tradition of Democrats and Republicans setting aside politics to respond to disasters, many conspiracy theories suggest that Democrats like President Joe Biden and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper are intentionally withholding Republican aid. Trump pushed this thesis, as did North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, the struggling GOP candidate for governor.

“They are being treated very badly in Republican areas,” Trump told Fox News, ignoring reports and photographic and video evidence of recovery efforts taking place across the region. “They don’t get water, they don’t get anything.”

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones supported Trump’s fact-free claim. Jones, the founder of InfoWars, popularized the idea that the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, which killed 20 children, was faked. “Exclusive: Hurricane Helene Victims Confirm Federal Government Intentionally Blocking Emergency Responders and Stealing Aid in Trying to Prevent Voting in Deep Red Areas,” Jones posted on X on Thursday.

Disinformation campaigns by China and Russia amplify misleading claims

State media and disinformation campaigns by China and Russia amplified false and misleading claims about the response to the storm. Both countries have used social media and state news to criticize the response to past U.S. natural disasters, part of a broader effort to stoke division and distrust among Americans.

State and local officials in both parties have condemned the conspiracy theories as hearsay, saying the focus should be on recovery, not political divisions and rumors. Responding to fraud takes up time that should be spent helping victims, said North Carolina state Sen. Kevin Corbin, a Republican who urged his constituents not to fall for the scams.

“Friends, can I ask you for a little favor?” Corbin posted on Facebook Thursday. “Will you all help STOP these garbage conspiracy theories circulating on Facebook and the Internet… Please don’t let these crazy stories consume you.”

After Robinson, the Republican Party’s candidate for governor of North Carolina, posted in which he claimed that the state failed to prepare for the storm, the governor’s spokesman accused Robinson of organizing an “online disinformation campaign.” North Carolina officials say the response to Helene is the largest in the state’s history, with thousands of National Guard members and other relief workers, millions of reinforcements, dozens of planes and more than 1,000 chain saws.

Trump tried to link the hurricane’s aftermath to immigration, a central issue of his campaign. He falsely claimed that FEMA had run out of money because it had all gone to programs for immigrants who came to the country illegally.

The agency’s disaster relief funds are limited, but that’s because many parts of the country are dealing with the effects of hurricanes, wildfires and other disasters. Disaster relief is funded separately from other Department of Homeland Security programs that support immigration-related expenses.

Faraway tales of space lasers, artificial snow and weather control technology

Bizarre stories suggesting the government used weather-control technology to target a hurricane at GOP voters quickly gained millions of views on X and other platforms.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, D-Ga., supported the idea, posting on X on Wednesday: “Yes, they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for someone to lie and say it can’t be done.”

Faraway tales of space lasers, artificial snow and weather-control technology — sometimes tinged with anti-Semitism — have spread in the wake of recent natural disasters, including a snowstorm in Texas and last year’s wildfire on Maui.

Experts who study conspiracy theories say that major events such as disasters – the September 11 attacks and the Covid-19 pandemic – create ideal conditions for conspiracy theories to spread as large numbers of concerned people want to find explanations for shocking events.

In response to the number of false claims about Helena, the Red Cross urged people to seek credible sources of information and think twice before posting conspiracy theories.

“Sharing rumors online without first checking the source and checking the facts ultimately hurts people – people who have just lost their homes, their neighborhoods, and in some cases, their loved ones,” the organization wrote in a public appeal.

By DAVID KLEPPER Associated Press

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