As Hurricane Milton approaches Florida, FEMA finds itself under attack

For the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the arrival of Hurricane Milton comes at a precarious moment.

The agency tasked with coordinating federal disaster relief is not only already dealing with the massive damage left behind less than two weeks ago by Hurricane Helene in states like North Carolina, but it’s also struggling to counter rampant false claims made about that effort.

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell held a news conference Monday in Asheville, N.C., where she addressed widespread misinformation spread by politicians and on social media that the agency doesn’t have enough staff, is out of money and is limiting assistance to victims to $750.

“We have thousands of people on the ground, not just federal, but also our volunteers in the private sector,” Criswell said. “And frankly, that type of rhetoric is demoralizing to our staff that have left their families to come here and help the people of North Carolina. And we will be here as long as they’re needed.”

FEMA officials who have traveled to North Carolina, one of the states most impacted by Helene, have reported facing antisemitic threats sparked by rumors spread online, the Washington Post reported.

“If it creates so much fear that my staff doesn’t want to go out in the field, then we’re not going to be in a position where we can help people,” Criswell told CNN in a Tuesday interview about the threats being directed at FEMA workers. “I worry that they won’t apply for assistance, which means I can’t get them the necessary items they need to support them.”

False claims and finger-pointing

The accusations made against FEMA sprang to life last week after Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas gave a news conference and said that while the agency had sufficient funds to deal with recovery efforts for victims of Hurricane Helene, it could run out of money if another major hurricane hit the U.S. this year.

“We are meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have. We are expecting another hurricane hitting,” Mayorkas said. “FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season.”

Some Republican politicians ran with that quote and implied that the agency was out of money because a federal grant program run by FEMA, but separate from its disaster relief fund, provides funds for communities impacted by large numbers of migrants seeking asylum in the U.S.

At a campaign rally in Michigan last week, former President Donald Trump poured lighter fluid on that rumor, claiming that “the Harris-Biden administration says they don’t have any money. They’ve spent it all on ... illegal migrants.”

FEMA’s budget, however, is decided by Congress, which recently allocated an additional $20 billion for disaster relief.

In an interview with Fox News over the weekend, Trump pushed more misinformation, saying that hurricane victims were only being offered $750 by the Biden administration. In reality, that $750 is money FEMA distributes to cover immediate costs like hotels and food and represents only a fraction of the aid victims could be eligible to receive.

With a second major hurricane in less than two weeks poised to make landfall in Florida this week, FEMA has since clarified that it has “pre-positioned resources to support local and state response efforts ahead of Hurricane Milton’s landfall.”

The White House also sought to assure the country that the federal government remained prepared to assist hurricane victims across the region.

“Our Administration continues to surge resources to Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia to respond to Hurricane Helene’s impact,” the White House said in a statement posted to social media. “More than 7,400 federal personnel are still deployed, and we will not leave until the job is done.”

‘Stop this junk’

But countering the FEMA rumors running rampant on social media platforms like Elon Musk’s X has proven a difficult task and has led to pleas from lawmakers.

“Friends can I ask a small favor? Will you all help STOP this conspiracy theory junk that is floating all over Facebook and the internet about the floods in WNC,” North Carolina state Sen. Kevin Corbin, a Republican representing several western counties, wrote in a Facebook post last week. “Example: 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. PLEASE help stop this junk.”

In an interview Tuesday with the hosts of The View, Vice President Kamala Harris called out Trump, her opponent in the 2024 presidential race, for his role in helping to amplify what she called “misinformation.”

“It’s profound, and it is the height of irresponsibility and frankly callousness. ... Lives are literally at stake right now. I mean we’re talking about real human beings and their lives and they’re losing everything, everything,” she said, adding, “The idea that somebody would be playing political games for the sake of himself — but this is so consistent about Donald Trump.”