While Florida recovers from Hurricane Milton, the second dangerous storm to hit the U.S. Southeast in just a couple of weeks, a flood of misinformation threatens to compound the disasters. A major target of false claims is the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the government body coordinating recovery efforts from Hurricanes Milton and Helene—the latter of which has killed at least 230 people since the storm made landfall in late September. FEMA has set up a debunking page because it faces so many harmful and inaccurate rumors. And in a telling example of how far things have gone, Representative Chuck Edwards of North Carolina, a Republican, had to dispel lies in a letter to his constituents this week: “Hurricane Helene was NOT geoengineered by the government to seize and access lithium deposits in Chimney Rock,” he wrote.
FEMA is not seizing anyone’s property. The agency did not prevent evacuations. Its grant programs generally don’t require repayment. FEMA’s disaster relief funds were not diverted to assist migrants at U.S. borders. Chimney Rock doesn’t have any lithium mines. Uncle Sam can’t control storms.
But conspiracy theories making such claims have spread swiftly—and with startling prominence. “What we’re seeing now is pretty unprecedented,” says Lisa Kaplan, chief executive of Alethea, a cybersecurity company that tracks the spread of false narratives online. Former president Donald Trump, tech tycoon Elon Musk and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia all have promoted lies or false theories about the hurricanes or disaster responses.
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