Fact check on the viral conspiracies after Hurricane Helene

This story is part of emergencya Grist series examining how climate disasters affect elections and politics.

The conspiracy theories began to bubble up as the floodwaters rose: Hurricane Helene, the deadliest storm to hit the United States since Katrina in 2005, was created specifically to target Trump voters in key swing states. “Yes, they can control the weather,” right-wing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia posted on X on Thursday. “It’s ridiculous for someone to lie and say they can’t.”

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, best known for arguing that the Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax, posted a video on X claiming that the government was targeting Helene in North Carolina. Why? To drive people out of the region so they can mine the state's large reserves of lithium, a key component of the batteries that power electric vehicles and store renewable energy. The video was viewed almost a million times within three days.

Hundreds of keyboard conspiracy theorists have posted on TikTok, “I just came down from the mountains to deliver supplies,” someone with the username “RastaGuerilla” posted on September 30, etc.” The post received tens of thousands of likes. Statements and similar messages from people claiming to be in the disaster area resulted in hundreds of thousands of views and reposts.

There is no telling what percentage of these false claims actually came from people in the areas devastated by Helene, let alone whether they were spread by humans or bots. Regardless of who or what wrote them, the conspiracies are obviously untrue. FEMA does not confiscate supplies. The Biden administration is not trying to drive people off the land where it wants to mine lithium. And the federal government certainly can’t control the weather. For disaster researchers, the spate of targeted conspiracies is further evidence that conspiratorial thinking is becoming something of an epidemic.

“We have moved into a space where conspiratorial thinking has become mainstream,” said Rachel Goldwasser, who tracks far-right activity and disinformation at the Southern Poverty Law Center. “Every tinfoil hat out there who says the government controls the weather now feels vindicated because Marjorie Taylor Greene said so too.”

Disasters inevitably stir up a cloud of conspiracies designed to cast doubt on the government's legitimacy – the dark corners of society have long portrayed FEMA as a sinister, all-powerful bogeyman capable of the most outlandish and diabolical acts. During the COVID-19 pandemic, conspiracy theorists claimed that the company confiscated medical supplies from hospitals and local governments. Similar rumors about the confiscation of donations by FEMA and the Red Cross in Lahaina spread online after the devastating wildfire in Hawaii last year.

But experts told Grist that the storm's proximity to Election Day spawned a toxic mix of conspiracies that reflect broader conversations about immigration, workplace inclusion and other hot topics that Republicans and conservative news outlets tried to turn into cultural referendums ahead of November 5.

A popular theory found in online forums is that the government diverted funds from FEMA to fund programs for illegal immigrants. “FEMA spending over a billion dollars on illegals while leaving Americans without help is treason,” Tim Burchett, a Republican representative from Tennessee, said on X, without citing evidence. Another theory is that the agency prioritized diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) training over disaster preparedness. Immigration, and to a lesser extent DEI, are at the heart of former President Donald Trump's re-election platform. (The former president took to Truth Social on Thursday to denounce the Biden administration's response as “the worst and most incompetently managed federal 'storm'” before adding, “But their border management is even worse!”)

“There has already been a discourse about these issues and there are obviously already people who are very concerned about them,” said Samantha Penta, a sociologist and emergency management and homeland security expert at the University of Albany. “I am not surprised that these concerns are being included in the discussion of Helene’s response.”

Some of the theories reflect a tiny aspect of the truth. In his video, Jones cited a real government program from the 1960s called Project Stormfury as evidence that the government had deliberately “sown” the storm. The program, which investigated the possibility of reducing the strength of a hurricane by inoculating it with silver iodide, ended in 1983.

Conspiracies that suggest FEMA is both absent from disaster relief efforts and confiscating supplies also contain a grain of truth, based on a widespread misunderstanding about the agency's role in disaster relief. Many people believe that immediately after a disaster arrives at a place with crates of water, pallets of food, and hordes of people with shovels and flashlights. However, it is better described as a logistics coordination and check writing organization. “You’ll never see someone in a FEMA jacket putting sandbags on a riverbed,” Penta said. “That’s not their job.”

One of his primary responsibilities is to coordinate relief efforts and distribution of supplies with local and state officials and nonprofit organizations. FEMA typically discourages people from sending relief supplies or going to a disaster area, not because they want to withhold help from the people who need it, but because all those items and untrained volunteers simply get in the way and slow down the relief effort. That's why states often heed FEMA's calls to stay out of harm's way and leave recovery efforts to those who know what they're doing.

“The State of North Carolina advises everyone NOT to travel to the affected region,” the North Carolina Business Emergency Operations Center said in an email Thursday. “We have live communications and power cables on the roads, providing vital resources to affected communities that must not be disrupted. We also have cleared roads.”

The federal Transportation Department has imposed temporary flight restrictions on parts of the Southeast to prevent amateur drone operators and others from obstructing rescue efforts, providing further fodder for those who insist the federal government is conspiring to prevent good Samaritans from doing so to help people in need. “Do not fly your drone near or near Hurricane Helene rescue and recovery efforts,” the agency said in a post on X on Wednesday. “Interference with emergency operations impacts on-site search and rescue operations. “

It's true that in the immediate aftermath of the storm that devastated large swaths of six states, many people – particularly those in remote areas or those completely cut off from flooding – were left to fend for themselves.

Joshua Hensley, an entrepreneur living in Asheville, drove across western North Carolina to deliver supplies. “Most of the government involvement that we've seen is ospreys flying over and helicopters trying to bring things in and evacuate people,” he told Grist on Thursday via a Starlink satellite hotspot. “But locally I’ve been everywhere and it’s almost entirely local.”

In the days before federal aid arrived, Asheville restaurants, breweries and other establishments scrambled to provide water, medical supplies and other assistance to residents. “All staff and community members volunteered their time and energy,” said Mae Walker, a service worker who lives in the city. “Much more than any visible assistance from police or other city officials outside of restoring power.”

In the days following the storm, local pilots used the Asheville airport as a distribution center to deliver supplies to stranded communities and conduct search and rescue missions. But as the state and federal government's vast disaster relief apparatus groaned into action, their efforts became more of a hindrance than a help, and airport officials urged them to stop as the state took over those operations.

The false idea that government is not responding to a disaster, and the false conspiracy theories that reinforce such ideas, can have dangerous consequences. The Southern Policy Law Center has heard credible reports that far-right militias and white supremacist organizations are moving into the region to provide aid — and, if past disasters are any indication, to drum up sympathy for their cause.

“The more people believe that FEMA is not there or that FEMA has spent all of their money on DEI or whatever, the more groups like militias believe they are needed in these areas,” Goldwasser said. “They have their own plans and goals that they are trying to achieve that go beyond the needs of the local people who need help.”

It's easy to see how, in the chaotic hours and days following a disaster, people might think that the government has failed residents of affected areas. But the conspiracy theories popping up online and the politicians and pundits who spread them obscure the truth, which is that disaster relief is messy and, yes, often flawed. “FEMA is an institution built and led by people,” Penta said. “There will be mistakes and things will go badly and they will be criticized for that.”

Such criticism is justified, even justified. FEMA has been chronically underfunded for decades, a situation that will only get worse as climate-related disasters become more frequent, more devastating and more costly. The problem is compounded by the increasing polarization of American society and the willingness of many people to see only the worst in government and the people who work in it. The confluence of these two trends creates fertile ground for conspiracy theories to thrive – and suggests that the tide of lies will continue to rise long after the waters that have inundated the Southeast recede.