A number of prominent Republicans in the Southeast have hit out at misinformation about the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) response to Hurricane Helene, including claims made by GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Helene crashed into the U.S. Southeast on September 26 as a Category 4 storm, causing widespread damage and flooding that killed at least 225 people, with the states of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia particularly badly affected. Separately, millions of people in Florida have been told to evacuate ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Milton, a Category 5 storm, which is expected to make landfall in the state by Thursday morning.
The hurricanes have sparked a wave of misinformation on social media, including claims that FEMA has diverted part of its budget to migrants, and could be about to run out of money, which the federal agency has dismissed as “false.”
In a statement, North Carolina House Republican Chuck Edwards listed eight “outrageous rumors” that he said had been shared online about Hurricane Helene and the response from authorities.
The aftermath of Hurricane Helene on October 8, 2024, in Bat Cave, North Carolina. A number of prominent Republicans hit out at “misinformation” about the hurricane and the federal response.
Mario Tama/GETTY
Starting with an insistence that “Hurricane Helene was NOT geoengineered by the government to seize and access lithium deposits in Chimney Rock,” Edwards insisted FEMA is “NOT stopping trucks or vehicles with donations” nor has it “diverted disaster response funding to the border or foreign aid.”
Edwards added that “FEMA is NOT only providing $750 to disaster survivors to support their recovery,” noting these Serious Needs Assistance payments are only meant to provide short-term support to those impacted, with a range of longer-term programs also available.
This appeared to contradict a claim that Trump made on Sunday. When referring to the federal government, the former president said: “They sent hundreds of billions of dollars to foreign nations and you know what they’re giving our people? 750 bucks.”
Trump also claimed FEMA funding had been diverted to be spent “on housing for illegal immigrants,” an accusation the agency flat out rejected and which Vice President Kamala Harris labeled “extraordinarily irresponsible.”
Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, claimed conspiracy theories about Hurricane Helene had become “a distraction” during an appearance on CBS‘ ‘Face the Nation’ on Sunday.
“If there are any challenges, call my office,” he said. “We’ll track them down if there are real issues, but quite honestly, most of what I’ve seen out there is a distraction and not helping the core of the effort right here, which is to save lives and start rebuilding.”
In a Facebook post, North Carolina State Senator Kevin Corbin urged readers to “STOP this conspiracy theory junk that is floating all over Facebook.”
As examples of “junk” he listed claims that “FEMA is stealing money from donations, body bags ordered but government has denied, bodies not being buried, government is controlling the weather from Antarctica, government is trying to get lithium from WNC, stacks of bodies left at hospitals, and on and on and on.”
Corbin added that this disinformation “is just a distraction to people trying to do their job.”
During a CNN appearance, Alyssa Farah Griffin, who previously served as White House director of communications under Trump, accused her former boss of knowingly sharing disinformation about the response to Hurricane Helene.
After the network played a clip of Trump saying survivors were getting “750 bucks” in contrast to “hundreds of billions of dollars” for foreign nations, she said: “It’s gross but it’s dangerous. Donald Trump worked directly with FEMA and I would actually argue that of all the government agencies I’ve ever worked with FEMA may be the most effective at executing their job…he knows this information isn’t true and it has real life consequences on the ground.
“Volunteers have been depressed because they think there’s not a need or they’re not able to get to where they need to be, FEMA’s using resources…to knock down these lies. And then you have people who desperately need help who are being told there’s no help to get when in fact there are quite a lot of federal resources out there.”
Newsweek contacted Tillis, Corbin, Edwards and Trump’s campaign for comment via email on Wednesday outside of regular office hours.
