FEMA’s battle against misinformation
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 9 October 2024
⏱️ 30 minutes
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Summary
After Hurricane Helene hit the southern United States last month, a wave of conspiracy theories flooded social media about the storm and the response by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA. Former president Donald Trump promoted one conspiracy theory, falsely suggesting that the Biden administration used FEMA disaster funds to help migrants at the southern border.
Now, as Hurricane Milton nears landfall, FEMA and other federal agencies are gearing up to respond to potentially devastating damage, and also to combat conspiracy theories that may discourage people from getting help.
Today on “Post Reports,” Martine Powers speaks with climate reporter Maxine Joselow about how FEMA is preparing for Hurricane Milton while fighting misinformation.
Today’s show was produced by Sabby Robinson with help from Peter Bresnan and Ariel Plotnick. It was mixed by Sean Carter and edited by Monica Campbell with help from Reena Flores. Thanks to Molly Hennessy-Fiske.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hurricane Milton is barreling toward Florida. By the time many people hear this, it will already have hit. |
| 0:09.0 | It's following another deadly hurricane that hit the southeastern U.S. about two weeks ago, Hurricane Helene, |
| 0:15.3 | yesterday Florida's Pinellas County Emergency Management Director Kathy Perkins urged residents |
| 0:21.2 | to evacuate. |
| 0:22.2 | We are into the final hours. |
| 0:25.0 | So some of us may have had it in the back of our minds and it's going to turn, it's going to miss us. |
| 0:30.0 | We're going to get hit, whether it's a direct hit or it moves slightly, there's just |
| 0:37.0 | no ifs or butts about it. We're going to get hit and it's going to be hard. In the midst of all of this, there has been a wave of rumors surrounding the U.S US agency that responds to disasters, the Federal Emergency |
| 0:56.1 | Management Agency, or FEMA. Maxine Josslow is a climate reporter for the post, and she has been tracking and debunking the false claims. |
| 1:05.6 | All of the claims that I'm about to say are false. There's no evidence to suggest any of this is happening, |
| 1:11.6 | but some of the false claims I've heard circulating are that |
| 1:15.7 | FEMA is not actually responding to any of these disasters and doesn't have anyone on the ground |
| 1:20.5 | in these states affected, that disaster victims only get $750 from FEMA to recover. |
| 1:27.4 | That's just one bucket of money that's false. That FEMA is diverting some of its disaster |
| 1:32.0 | relief money to help migrants. |
| 1:34.7 | They stole the FEMA money just like they stole it from a bank so they could give it to their |
| 1:40.0 | illegal immigrants that they want to have vote for them this season. |
| 1:44.7 | You know, they're trying to get them under voters wrote, we cannot let that happen. |
| 1:49.8 | Maxine says that the range of rumors is growing and includes what we just heard |
| 1:54.4 | from former President Donald Trump that disaster relief is being used for |
| 1:57.8 | migrants or what conspiracy theorist Alex Jones said on a recent info |
| 2:02.9 | war's broadcast about how the government controls the weather. |
... |
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