Flood of Hurricane Myths Seen by Millions
There’s No “Storm Manipulation”; FEMA Did Not Divert Funds to Migrants; Heart-Tugging Flood Photo Is AI
Welcome to Reality Check, your inside look at how misinformation online is undermining trust — and who’s behind it.
Special Edition: Hurricane Misinformation Floods Social Media
Today:
Conservatives blame hurricanes on “weather manipulation”
FEMA falsely accused of diverting disaster relief funds to migrants
No, the government is not seizing and bulldozing a devastated North Carolina village
Viral image of terrified girl stranded on a boat was AI generated
Today’s newsletter was edited by Eric Effron, Sofia Rubinson, and McKenzie Sadeghi.
1. Right-Wing Users Blame ‘Weather Manipulation’ as Second Hurricane Barrels Toward Florida
By Sofia Rubinson and Sarah Komar
Time for the weather report, and it’s a cloudy one.
What’s happening: Hurricane Milton is expected to make landfall on central Florida on the evening of Oct. 9, less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene pummeled the southeastern U.S., killing at least 230 people and causing an estimated $34 billion in damage.
Amid the dangerous weather, NewsGuard has identified false claims related to the storms, some aimed at undermining faith in the federal response, others apparently meant to sow confusion.
Misinformation surrounding the hurricane has become so widespread that it has affected the morale of first responders and discouraged people from applying for aid, local officials say. At an Oct. 8 press conference, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) administrator Deanne Criswell said that the misinformation has hit a level “that I’ve never seen before.”
A closer look: Some of the most prominent false claims relate to conspiracy theories about weather manipulation:
Claim: Hurricane Helene was steered toward Republican districts in the key election swing state of North Carolina to disrupt November voting.
Actually: Science is not capable of creating or meaningfully altering hurricanes. Although Western North Carolina, a predominantly Republican region, was hit the hardest, the liberal-leaning city of Asheville also suffered devastating damage. Amid the false claims, Republican North Carolina Rep. Chuck Edwards felt compelled to send a letter to his constituents stating, “Nobody can control the weather.”
How it spread: Far-right commentator Matt Wallace created a map (shown above) that purports to show how Republican counties were pummeled while Hurricane Helene “methodically miss[ed] the bluest parts of those crucial swing states.” That map was then reposted as proof of weather manipulation multiple times on X, including by Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has 1.2 million followers.
Claim: A video shows an unnatural cloud pattern over a Florida beach ahead of Hurricane Milton’s landfall, indicative of geo-engineering.
Actually: The video was taken in 2021 and depicts Asperitas clouds, a rare but natural cloud formation that forms when pockets of air rise and sink in the atmosphere.
How it spread: The conspiracy-oriented X account @BGatesIsaPyscho, whose author goes by “Concerned Citizen,” appears to be the first user to misrepresent the rare cloud formation video in a post that generated 7 million views.
Claim: Both hurricanes were steered up the coast using the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP), a U.S.-based research program that investigates space weather.
Actually: HAARP technology cannot manipulate weather conditions, according to earth scientists, physicists, and HAARP’s website. According to its website, HAARP is “basically a large radio transmitter” that cannot manipulate Earth’s weather because “the frequency ranges that HAARP transmits are not absorbed in … the two levels of the atmosphere that produce Earth’s weather.”
Local and federal officials as well as meteorology experts have debunked claims that HAARP was connected to the formation of the hurricanes. NewsGuard has previously debunked 10 false claims blaming HAARP for natural weather events.
By the numbers: From Sept. 26, when Hurricane Helene made landfall, to Oct. 9, 174,000 articles and social media posts mentioned the hurricanes alongside terms such as “geoengineered,” “manipulated,” and “weather weapons,” according to a social media analytics tool. In the previous 13-day period, there were only 586 mentions.
Wallace, who posted the map alleging the steering of the storm, did not respond to a direct message on X requesting comment. A spokesperson for Greene did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
Reality Check members can read NewsGuard’s Misinformation Fingerprint for this false narrative here.
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2. FEMA Fiction: Migrants Are Not Receiving Funds Intended for Disaster Relief
By Sarah Komar
What happened: Conservatives are baselessly accusing FEMA of diverting funds intended for disaster relief to programs that provide aid to illegal migrants.
A closer look: Right-wing commentators are claiming that disaster relief funds have been redirected to FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program, which helps non-federal agencies provide humanitarian services to migrants released by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Conservative author Ashley St. Clair wrote in an Oct. 2 X post: “The Biden-Harris Admin said there’s no more FEMA money for hurricane victims because we spent $640 MILLION on illegal migrants.” The post garnered more than 648,000 views.
Donald Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt released a statement on the campaign’s website saying: “FEMA has run out of money for the rest of hurricane season because Kamala Harris used the funds for free giveaways to illegal immigrants. This is inexcusable and yet another example of Kamala Harris putting Americans LAST!”
Actually: FEMA’s migrant-related Shelter and Services Program has a dedicated budget, separate from the budget for the Disaster Relief Fund that is used to respond to natural disasters. “No money is being diverted from disaster response needs,” FEMA said in a statement. “Disaster Relief Fund money has not been diverted to other, non-disaster related efforts.”
For the 2024 fiscal year, Congress, controlled in the House by Republicans, allocated $35.5 billion to the Disaster Relief Fund and $640 million to the Shelter and Services Program.
Reality Check members can read NewsGuard’s Misinformation Fingerprint for this false narrative here.
In response to an inquiry from NewsGuard, St. Clair, the conservative writer, said in an October 2024 email: “Allocation of nearly $1 BILLION in FEMA funds went to the migrant crisis in 2023 and 2024. Why was this money allocated by our government to migrants instead of the American people and the disaster relief fund?”
The Trump campaign did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
If you see something, say something
If you see or hear something that you think may be provably false, please alert NewsGuard via realitycheck@newsguardtech.com and we'll do our best to get to the bottom of it. Note: Tips should not include content that you simply disagree with, however strongly.
3. No, the Feds Are Not Seizing and Bulldozing a Flooded North Carolina Village
By Sarah Komar
What happened: An X post from a conspiracy theorist based on hearsay has sparked a baseless rumor that the U.S. government is seizing and bulldozing the village of Chimney Rock, North Carolina, after it was decimated by Hurricane Helene.
A closer look: The claim appears to have originated in an Oct. 2 X post from Chris Martenson, a self-described “econo-blogger” who regularly shares conspiracy theories. Martenson cited a message from an unnamed North Carolina resident who claimed to have heard secondhand information from a friend living in Chimney Rock about a purported secret town hall meeting where local officials informed residents about their plans to seize land and bulldoze the town.
Actually: There is no evidence that such a meeting ever occurred, let alone that the government is seizing and bulldozing land.
The emergency management department of Rutherford County, North Carolina, where Chimney Rock is located, said in a statement: “There was no ‘special meeting’ held in Chimney Rock … involving discussions of the federal, state, or local governments seizing the town. These claims are entirely false.”
Chimney Rock Mayor Peter O’Leary told North Carolina-based publication The Citizen Times on Oct. 8: “The rumors are not true. We are rebuilding.” Republican North Carolina Rep. Chuck Edwards declared in a statement, “Chimney Rock is NOT being bulldozed over.”
Where it spread: The claim spread widely among some right-wing accounts during the first week of October on TikTok, X, and sites that NewsGuard has found to repeatedly publish false or egregiously misleading information, including BeforeItsNews.com (Trust Score: 0/100) and SonsOfLibertyMedia.com (Trust Score: 10/100).
Martenson did not respond to a request for comment via a contact form on his blog.
Reality Check members can read NewsGuard’s Misinformation Fingerprint for this false narrative here.
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4. One More Thing … Widely Shared Photo of Girl in Flooded Waters Was AI Generated
When disaster strikes, you can count on AI to amplify the chaos and despair even when it doesn’t need to be amplified.
What happened: A widely shared image of a terrified girl crying and clinging to her puppy on a boat in flood waters was claimed by many as showing a victim of Hurricane Helene. Instead, it was created by using artificial intelligence.
A closer look: Some social media users sharing the image as authentic used it to criticize the Biden administration for what they said was inadequate support for Hurricane Helene victims.
The earliest instance NewsGuard found of the image was from anonymous X user @CMDRVALTHOR, who regularly shares conservative content. The post, which has received 600,000 views, stated: “Please keep North Carolina and Tennessee in your prayers. Don’t act like you didn’t see this.” This post received approximately 600,000 views.
Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich posted the photo with the caption, “The Criminal Admin in One Image.” A post from Buzz Patterson, a columnist for the right-leaning news site RedState (Trust Score: 62/100), captioned “Our government has failed us again” received nearly 1 million views.
Actually: The image bears all the hallmarks of AI generation.
AI detector tool TrueMedia found a 98 percent likelihood that the photo is AI generated.
Tricks of the trade: The image contains visual indicators that AI was used, including the girl’s waxy, unrealistic coloring in her face that differs from her arms, and abnormally smooth skin.
The blurry background shows a man with an abnormally long arm and another person with a missing limb.
Reality Check members can read NewsGuard’s Misinformation Fingerprint for this false narrative here.
What is it about the weather? Weather can be an unpredictable and often frightening force, leading to an influx of wild conspiracies to explain natural events. Previously, NewsGuard has debunked claims that the 2023 earthquakes in Turkey and Morocco were created by HAARP, that wind farms cause droughts, and that the conservative policy blueprint Project 2025 aims to eliminate the National Weather Service.
Reality Check is produced by co-CEOs Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz, and the NewsGuard team.
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