Hoaxes and threats force North Carolina to reorganize Hurricane Helene relief operations

The false rumors and misinformation surrounding federal disaster recovery efforts in western North Carolina following the deadly Hurricane Helene three weeks ago are already having dangerous consequences. As tens of thousands of people struggle to clear fallen trees, reopen bridges, restore power or salvage what they can from their damaged homes, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has had to reorganize its work and redeploy its teams in the area after receiving “credible” threats to the safety of its workers this weekend.

Over the weekend, the U.S. Forest Service sent an email to relief workers stating that a National Guard unit had heard from a “militia” claiming to be “hunting” for FEMA workers in the Lake Luge and Chimney Rock areas, two major tourist attractions badly damaged by Helene in rural Rutherford County, in the Appalachian foothills.

On Monday, the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that one person, William Jacob Parsons, 44, had been arrested in connection with the incident. The office said initial reports suggested a militia was involved, but deputies have determined that the suspect, who was armed with a rifle and a revolver when he made the threats, acted alone. Parsons was released on $10,000 bail on public terror charges.

As a precaution, the disaster management agency has announced that its assistance teams will stop going door-to-door in the affected areas and will instead offer their services at relief centers. The task of these teams is to inform victims of the federal aid to which they are entitled and to help them apply for it.

“FEMA continues to support communities affected by Helene and assist survivors with their applications for assistance. In the interest of the safety of our staff and the disaster survivors we assist, FEMA has implemented some operational adjustments. Disaster Assistance Centers will remain open as usual, survivors will continue to register for assistance, and we will continue to assist North Carolinians in their recovery,” the federal agency said.

The incident is the most high-profile so far amid a flood of misinformation surrounding federal government work in North Carolina and other states hit by Helene and, last week, by Hurricane Milton, which left major damage in Florida. Helene made landfall in Florida on September 26 as a Category 4 storm and left a wave of destruction and at least 225 dead as it swept through six states. Most of the casualties and the worst of the damage were in North Carolina, where some roads remain closed and communities in hard-to-reach mountain areas have yet to have power restored.

The conspiracy theories have complicated the rollout of relief efforts and forced rescuers to divert part of their resources to combating these claims, instead of devoting them to the victims. They have also fueled the distrust of aid recipients, who in some cases have gone so far as to refuse to accept anything from the federal government.

The falsehoods that have been circulating in recent weeks are very varied. Some of the most far-fetched claims hold that the authorities plan to finish demolishing the town of Chimney Rock, which was almost completely destroyed by the hurricane, in order to bury hundreds of corpses there with bulldozers. This latter hoax unleashed panic in the area and calls from some residents for citizen militias to confront FEMA workers; this was precisely the threat that the arrested suspect seems to have uttered.

Other hoaxes claim that compensation for damages is capped at $750, or that funds to help victims have been given to immigrants instead. Another theory that has found takers, including a few politicians from the most extreme wing of the Republican party, such as Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Greene, is that the federal government deliberately caused the hurricanes to obtain a supposed political benefit in the upcoming elections.

In the final stretch of the campaign for the presidential elections on November 5, the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, has amplified some of these hoaxes and rumors, such as the one that claims there is no aid for victims because the money has gone to asylum seekers.

It is unclear whether these hoaxes will have any effect on the outcome of the election in the state. North Carolina is one of seven swing states, along with Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona, that will have the final say in who becomes the next president: Donald Trump or his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris. Poll aggregators suggest that the two are in a technical tie, although the Republican leads his opponent by just a few tenths of a percentage point.

The area affected by Helene in North Carolina, in and around the Appalachian Mountains, is mostly rural, and Trump won most of those counties in the last election, winning the state by just a few tenths of a point. But it also includes the urban core of Asheville, an artsy enclave with very progressive tendencies, the university town of Boone, and areas where Democrats have been making gains in recent years.

In response to the flood of rumors, FEMA has created a webpage specifically related to Hurricane Helene’s response and recovery. U.S. President Joe Biden himself has appeared in public to try to tackle the most outrageous claims. Alejandro Mayorkas, the Secretary of Homeland Security (the department that FEMA answers to), denounced on Sunday that “we have individuals in need of assistance, who are entitled to assistance, who aren’t seeking it because of the false information.”

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, cited online hoaxes and reports of threats to relief workers on Monday, saying state police officers would work with local authorities to identify and respond to specific rumors and threats.

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