Hurricane Milton & Helene: Fact-checking conspiracies and rumors
2024.10.09 15:26
By Hardik Vyas and Esther Chan
As Hurricane Milton barreled toward Florida’s Gulf Coast on Wednesday, misinformation surrounding relief efforts and conspiracy theories about officials controlling the weather have surfaced online.
More than 1 million people have been ordered to evacuate in Florida’s Gulf Coast, a region still recovering from Hurricane Helene, which battered the U.S. Southeast at the end of September.
Here are some of the key misinformation narratives gaining traction online:
CLAIM: Hurricanes are a product of “weather control”
WHAT WE KNOWSeveral online posts, including one from Republican U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, have suggested weather control was at play during the hurricanes. In an X post on Oct. 3, Greene said: “Yes they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”
Experts in hurricane meteorology told Reuters that hurricane modification has never been possible due to the size and power of the storms.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration experimented with cloud seeding of hurricanes between the 1960s and 1980s in the hope of reducing the strength of their winds but concluded it didn’t work. It also found that the size and power of a hurricane made this process, as well as other techniques considered over the years, infeasible.
Greene’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.
CLAIM: FEMA’s $750 emergency aid is a loan
WHAT WE KNOWAn online post clocking more than 5 million views claimed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency gave Helene victims a loan of $750 instead of an upfront payment.
Jaclyn Rothenberg, a spokesperson for FEMA, wrote on X that the online posts are not true and that the agency does not ask for emergency assistance money back. FEMA also addressed the narrative on its website, calling it a “myth.”
FEMA’s website says the $750 is an “upfront, flexible payment to help cover essential items like food, water, baby formula, breastfeeding supplies, medication and other emergency supplies.” It is an initial payment that may be approved “soon after” an application is made. FEMA assesses an applicant’s eligibility to receive further aid.
CLAIM: HAARP program used to manipulate weather and cause hurricanes
WHAT WE KNOWHAARP, a University of Alaska Fairbanks program that was managed by the U.S. military between 1990-2014, uses high-frequency equipment to study the upper atmosphere. Conspiracy theories about HAARP – formally called the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program – accuse governments of using the program to secretly alter the weather or tie the program to natural disasters.
A spokesperson for HAARP told Reuters: “HAARP can’t create, modify or manipulate a hurricane.”
Howard Diamond, a director at NOAA’s Air Resources Laboratory, said in an email that HAARP has “absolutely no connection to the formation of hurricanes like Helene or Milton.”
“Neither HAARP nor any facility can affect hurricanes … and there is no technology that humans have that can either create, destroy, modify, intensify, or steer hurricanes in any way, shape, or form,” he added.
CLAIM: President Joe Biden in a pre-hurricane message to citizens says, “get vaccinated now”
WHAT WE KNOWIn a clip shared on X and captioned as Biden’s “pre-hurricane message,” the U.S. president is heard saying, “A vital part of preparing for hurricane season is to get vaccinated now.” Biden’s comments were previously shared without context to suggest he believes that a vaccination will protect against hurricanes.
The president’s comments, however, can be traced to a 2021 briefing when he urged Americans in hurricane-prone states to get vaccinated against COVID-19 to protect themselves in case they have to evacuate their homes.
“We can’t prevent hurricanes from making landfall, but we can prevent people from getting seriously sick and dying from COVID-19,” he said. “If you wind up having to stay in a shelter, you don’t want to add COVID-19 to the list of dangers.”
CLAIM: Not a single tweet by Vice President Kamala Harris about Hurricane Helene
WHAT WE KNOW
Days after Hurricane Helene tore through the Southeast, a far-right account on X falsely stated on Sept. 29 that Kamala Harris had not posted on the platform about the storm. It was viewed more than 400,000 times.
Harris’ official account posted a day earlier, saying she was working with Biden and local leaders in the Southeast to provide support to areas affected by the hurricane.
