Late in the
2024 Atlantic hurricane season
The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season was a very active and extremely destructive Atlantic hurricane season that became the third-costliest on record, behind only 2017 Atlantic hurricane season, 2017 and 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, 2005. The ...
, misinformation and conspiracy theories spread about the nature of
Hurricane Helene
Hurricane Helene ( ) was a deadly and devastating tropical cyclone that caused widespread catastrophic damage and numerous fatalities across the Southeastern United States in late September 2024. It was the strongest hurricane on record to ...
and
Hurricane Milton
Hurricane Milton was an extremely powerful and destructive tropical cyclone which in 2024 became the most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded over the Gulf of Mexico, tying with Hurricane Rita in 2005. Milton made landfall on the west coa ...
, and about the post-storm disaster recoveries. False information was spread by multiple
American right-wing
Conservatism in the United States is one of two major political ideologies in the United States, with the other being liberalism. Traditional American conservatism is characterized by a belief in individualism, traditionalism, capitalism, re ...
politicians including
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
, who was the
2024 Republican presidential candidate,
and congresswoman
Marjorie Taylor Greene
Marjorie Taylor Greene ( Taylor; born May 27, 1974), sometimes referred to by her initials MTG, is an American far-rightSources describing Greene as "far-right" include:
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politician, businesswoman, and cons ...
.
These widespread rumors caused difficulties for first responders and official recovery workers,
hampering rescue efforts,
and some officials were subject to threats of violence.
The
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...
and
Federal Emergency Management Agency
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Exec ...
(FEMA) issued statements in response to these claims.
Background
In early 2024, hurricane forecasters predicted a highly-active season, citing the
La Niña effect and warm
sea surface temperatures
Sea surface temperature (or ocean surface temperature) is the ocean temperature, temperature of ocean water close to the surface. The exact meaning of ''surface'' varies in the literature and in practice. It is usually between and below the sea ...
. After the earliest-forming Category 5 hurricane on record,
Hurricane Beryl
Hurricane Beryl (, ) was a deadly and destructive tropical cyclone that impacted parts of the Caribbean, the Yucatán Peninsula, and the Gulf Coast of the United States in late June and early July 2024. The second named storm, first hurricane ...
, the US
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with Weather forecasting, forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, Hydrography, charting the seas, ...
(NOAA) maintained this prediction through August. In what was expected to be the peak season, however, there were few storms, and some called the season a "bust".
In late September and early October, Hurricanes Helene and Milton developed as
Category
Category, plural categories, may refer to:
General uses
*Classification, the general act of allocating things to classes/categories Philosophy
* Category of being
* ''Categories'' (Aristotle)
* Category (Kant)
* Categories (Peirce)
* Category ( ...
4 and 5 hurricanes, respectively, breaking the lull. Helene caused extensive damage across the
Southeastern United States
The Southeastern United States, also known as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical List of regions in the United States, region of the United States located in the eastern portion of the Southern United States and t ...
, becoming the deadliest hurricane to strike the US mainland since
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...
. In particular, the hurricane caused flooding in western
North Carolina
North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...
, hundreds of miles from the coast; NOAA described this unusually high inland rainfall as a "worst-case scenario" for the region. Milton broke the
National Weather Service
The National Weather Service (NWS) is an Government agency, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weathe ...
's record for
rapid intensification
Rapid intensification (RI) is any process wherein a tropical cyclone strengthens very dramatically in a short period of time. Tropical cyclone forecasting agencies utilize differing thresholds for designating rapid intensification events, th ...
, strengthening to a Category 5 and increasing its wind speeds by in 24 hours. The season became the second costliest in history, with $190 billion in damages, and broke records for amount of storm activity in the later period of a hurricane season.
Claims
Weather modification
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of
Georgia's 14th congressional district claimed in a
tweet on October 3 that it is possible to use
weather modification
Weather modification is the act of intentionally manipulating or altering the weather. The most common form of weather modification is cloud seeding, which increases rainfall or snowfall, usually for the purpose of increasing the local water su ...
to influence hurricanes.
[: " ep. Marjorie TaylorGreene, after spending years trying to distance herself from her infamous 2018 remarks on social media blaming wildfires on 'Jewish Space Lasers,' is now using this climate emergency to double down on weather conspiracies and lasers. While Greene stopped short of blaming Jews for the hurricanes, she has promoted conspiracies that have a history of being steeped in antisemitism. 'Yes they can control the weather,' Greene wrote on X on October 3 about the hurricanes, without specifying who 'they' are. 'It's ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can't be done.] Three days later, Greene made another post claiming weather modification was possible and in use. Prominent right-wing conspiracy theorist
Alex Jones
Alexander Emerick Jones (born February 11, 1974) is an American Far-right politics, far-right radio host, radio show host and prominent conspiracy theorist. He hosts ''The Alex Jones Show'' from Austin, Texas. ''The Alex Jones Show'' is the lo ...
made claims that Hurricanes Milton and Helene were "weather weapons" created by the US government.
Meteorologist
A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists ...
s Matthew Cappucci, Katie Nickolaou, and
James Spann
James Max Spann Jr. (born June 6, 1956) is a television meteorologist, and podcast host based in Birmingham, Alabama. He currently works for WBMA-LD (''ABC 33/40''), Birmingham's ABC affiliate. Spann has worked in the field since 1978. He also h ...
claimed to have received threats, accusing them of concealing that the US government was controlling the hurricane.
Claims that the
High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program
The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) is a University of Alaska Fairbanks program which researches the ionosphere – the highest, ionized part of Earth's atmosphere. The most prominent instrument at HAARP is the Ionospher ...
(HAARP) research project in Alaska can modify the weather have existed since at least 2012.
Agence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse (; AFP) is a French international news agency headquartered in Paris, France. Founded in 1835 as Havas, it is the world's oldest news agency.
With 2,400 employees of 100 nationalities, AFP has an editorial presence in 260 c ...
reported on popular social media posts claiming that the device created the storm; however, a research scientist at the
University of Alaska Fairbanks
The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF or Alaska) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-, National Sea Grant College Program, sea-, and National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program, space-grant research university in ...
, which runs the project, stated that is too low-powered to control weather. Likewise, the nationwide
weather radar
A weather radar, also called weather surveillance radar (WSR) and Doppler weather radar, is a type of radar used to locate precipitation (meteorology), precipitation, calculate its motion, and estimate its type (rain, snow, hail etc.). Modern w ...
system known as
Next-Generation Radar (NEXRAD) was the subject of claims that it could be used to control weather patterns. As a radar system it emits only a small amount of energy, which NOAA's
Hurricane Research Division The Hurricane Research Division (HRD) is a section of the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) in Miami, Florida, and is the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) focus for tropical cyclone research. T ...
states is too low to influence weather.
In research prior to the 2024 season, researchers have considered the social and ethical impacts of hurricane modification. In 2012, a survey found that proposals for weather modification to redirect hurricane paths induced feelings of anger in Florida residents. The US government retired
hurricane seeding experiments in 1983 after attempts proved futile and in 1998 the
American Meteorological Society
The American Meteorological Society (AMS) is a scientific and professional organization in the United States promoting and disseminating information about the atmospheric, oceanic, and hydrologic sciences. Its mission is to advance the atmosph ...
adopted an official position considering it unfeasible.
FEMA blocking aid
''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...
'' reported on viral social media posts claiming that law enforcement in North Carolina were seeking to arrest Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) staff for allegedly hindering relief work, a claim denied by state officials. Elon Musk faced criticism from ''
The Atlantic
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 185 ...
'',
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...
, and ''
Politico
''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American political digital newspaper company founded by American banker and media executive Robert Allbritton in 2007. It covers politics and policy in the Unit ...
'' for amplifying claims without evidence that FEMA had been expropriating aid shipments, blocking private citizens from rendering aid, and that sheriffs in North Carolina had threatened to arrest FEMA staff. The Twitter account for fake news website
Real Raw News falsely claimed that the
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...
were using
snipers
A sniper is a military or paramilitary marksman who engages targets from positions of concealment or at distances exceeding the target's detection capabilities. Snipers generally have specialized training and are equipped with telescopic si ...
to kill FEMA employees.
US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, FEMA Director of Public Affairs Jaclyn Rothenberg, and Asheville Mayor
Esther Manheimer
Esther Elizabeth Manheimer (born July 24, 1971) is an American politician and attorney. She has served as the mayor of Asheville, North Carolina, since 2013.
Early life and education
Manheimer was born on July 24, 1971, in the hamlet of Skyum ...
received
antisemitic
Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
attacks online and claimed to have feared for their safety in response work. FEMA received credible threats of violence directed at its staff, including calls for militias to shoot emergency responders.
One armed man acting alone was arrested in
Rutherford County, North Carolina, on October 14, 2024 for making threats against FEMA employees; as a result, aid workers relocated their work from the county.
On November 9, 2024, FEMA Administrator
Deanne Criswell
Deanne Bennett Criswell is an American emergency management officer who served as the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency from 2021 to 2025. Criswell is the first woman to lead FEMA. She was previously the commissioner of th ...
released an official statement announcing that a FEMA employee had "advise
her survivor assistance team to not go to homes with yard signs supporting President-elect Trump". Criswell referred to the act as "reprehensible". The alleged discrimination occurred in Florida, and the employee was fired for these alleged actions.
Florida Attorney General
The Florida attorney general is an elected Florida Cabinet, cabinet official in the U.S. state of Florida. The attorney general serves as the chief legal officer of the state, and is head of the Florida Department of Legal Affairs.
The office is ...
Ashley Moody
Ashley Brooke Moody (born March 28, 1975) is an American politician, attorney, and former jurist serving since 2025 as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States senator from the state of Florida. A member of the Republican P ...
filed a federal lawsuit against FEMA in response to the allegation of discrimination.
Land acquisition
''
PBS News Hour
''PBS News Hour'', previously stylized as ''PBS NewsHour'', is the news division of PBS and an American daily evening television news program broadcast on over 350 PBS member stations since October 20, 1975. It airs seven nights a week, and ...
'' reported on a belief that the US government was using the disaster to
seize land, in particular destroyed homes. Following Hurricane Helene, rumors spread online that
Chimney Rock, North Carolina, had been intentionally abandoned by relief officials so that the federal government could mine
lithium
Lithium (from , , ) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard temperature and pressure, standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the ...
after evacuating the residents or after leaving the residents for dead. County officials denied any plans of the sort. In Florida,
WUSF reported similar rumors that spread in the days leading up to Hurricane Milton's landfall, which caused the governor's office to rebut claims of FEMA seizing Floridians' homes.
Expenditure of relief funds on migrants
On October 3, Donald Trump accused the Biden administration of spending FEMA disaster relief funds on housing for "
illegal migrants", and he claimed that the agency had run out of funding for disaster recovery efforts. Ohio Representative
Jim Jordan
James Daniel Jordan (born February 17, 1964) is an American politician who has served in the U.S. House of Representatives as the representative for since 2007. He is a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party.
...
similarly claimed that disaster funds had gone to house migrants.
Elon Musk
Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman. He is known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has been considered the wealthiest person in th ...
amplified the claim on
Twitter
Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
, indicating that he viewed FEMA's alleged expenditures on migrants as "treason" and endorsing a call for Homeland Security Secretary
Alejandro Mayorkas
Alejandro Nicolas Mayorkas (born November 24, 1959) is an American attorney and government official who was the seventh United States secretary of homeland security, serving from 2021 until 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, Mayorkas previ ...
to be arrested. The ''Washington Post'' found no evidence that FEMA had redirected any disaster relief funding to migrant resettlement,
[: "During a rally Thursday in Saginaw, Mich., former president Donald Trump suggested without evidence that FEMA had used some disaster relief money to help immigrants who are in the country illegally to resettle in the United States. There is no evidence that FEMA has diverted any disaster relief funding for this purpose."] and the agency stated that it had continued to spend money towards relief efforts.
AI-generated images

On social media, multiple
viral AI-generated images spread supposedly depicting the hurricane and its response. The ''
Knoxville News Sentinel
The ''Knoxville News Sentinel'', also known as ''Knox News'', is a daily newspaper in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, owned by the Gannett Company.
History
The newspaper was formed in 1926 from the merger of two competing newspapers: '' ...
'' reported on one image of a flooded town that was claimed to be
Gatlinburg
Gatlinburg is a city in Sevier County, Tennessee, United States. It is located southeast of Knoxville and had a population of 3,577 at the 2020 census. It is a popular mountain resort town, as it rests on the border of Great Smoky Mountains Nat ...
, Tennessee, prompting a response from town officials that the town was not flooded and safe to visit.
After Helene, an AI-generated image of a girl holding a puppy while sitting in a boat floating on flooded waters circulated among Republicans, who used it as evidence of alleged failures of the Biden administration to respond to the disaster. ''The Atlantic'' noted that some politicians did not retract the image after learning it was fake, "insisting that it's real on some deeper level". Another image cited by ''USA Today'' depicted Donald Trump wading through floodwaters to rescue people, despite Trump wearing different clothing during his visit to the area.
[: "But the image, which was shared the same day and shows the former president wading through a flooded street, isn't legitimate. … There are no credible reports of the former president wading through flood waters while visiting Georgia. Pictures captured during his trip show him wearing a black suit with a red tie, not the blue long-sleeve shirt shown in the viral image."] Following Milton's track across Florida, AI-generated images depicting flooding in
Walt Disney World
The Walt Disney World Resort is an destination resort, entertainment resort complex located about southwest of Orlando, Florida, United States. Opened on October 1, 1971, the resort is operated by Disney Experiences, a division of the Wa ...
posted to
Telegram
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas pi ...
by Russian state news agency
RIA Novosti
RIA Novosti (), sometimes referred to as RIAN () or RIA (), is a Russian state-owned domestic news agency. On 9 December 2013, by a decree of Vladimir Putin, it was liquidated and its assets and workforce were transferred to the newly created ...
were republished by Russian news networks. AI- and
computer-generated images
Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is a specific-technology or application of computer graphics for creating or improving images in art, printed media, simulators, videos and video games. These images are either static (i.e. still images) or d ...
supposedly documenting the
hurricane's tornado outbreak were widely shared, including by British tabloid
''The Mirror''.
Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency ...
quoted an anonymous US intelligence official who claimed Russian and Chinese influence operations spread AI-generated misinformation related to the hurricanes.
Effects
Multiple commentators alleged that Republican Party politicians' promotion of these claims was intended to gain an advantage in the
2024 United States presidential election
United States presidential election, Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 5, 2024. The Republican Party (United States), Republican Party's Ticket (election), ticket—Donald Trump, who was the 45th president of ...
. Jim Puzzanghera in ''
The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...
'' claimed that the party was "seeking
nedge" in hurricane-battered Georgia because it is a
swing state
In United States politics, a swing state (also known as battleground state, toss-up state, or purple state) is any state that could reasonably be won by either the Democratic or Republican candidate in a statewide election, most often refe ...
, "exploiting the trauma" by using claims about the
Biden administration
Joe Biden's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 46th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Joe Biden, his inauguration on January 20, 2021, and ended on January 20, 2025. Biden, a member of the Democr ...
's response efforts to reduce support for the
Kamala Harris's campaign. ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' misinformation reporter Rachel Leingang argued that misinformation was likely so prevalent due to the proximity to the election, quoting a fellow at the
American Immigration Council
The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), founded on October 14, 1946, is a voluntary bar association of over 15,000 attorneys and law professors who practice and teach immigration law. AILA member attorneys represent U.S. families see ...
who claimed that "there's no question that this level of falsehoods would not be spread were there not an election a month away".
Local officials and relief workers have had to expend resources combatting misinformation that might otherwise have been used toward first response work.
[: "The practical effect of these falsehoods is that local officials have to spend precious time and energy combatting misinformation, rather than recovery efforts."] FEMA and White House officials have expressed concern that survivors and others impacted by the storms may be less likely to seek relief from the agency due to the misinformation.
[: The misinformation is extremely damaging to the response efforts from Helene and from any disaster,' eith Turi, FEMA's Acting Associate Administrator for Response and Recoverysaid. 'It is reducing the likelihood that survivors will come to FEMA in a trusting way to register for assistance. (for the official statement, see : "In fact, disinformation after a hurricane or other natural disaster can discourage people from seeking critical assistance when they need it most.")] In response, the White House directed federal agencies to engage with the public on social media with evidence the government was on the ground helping relief efforts.
[: "Senior US officials have also instructed public affairs teams at federal agencies to ramp up social media posts from government accounts with photos that illustrate how federal workers are clearing debris and dispensing aid, the first US official familiar with the effort said."] FEMA added a page on its website to rebut claims. Republican Congressman
Chuck Edwards
Charles Marion Edwards (born September 13, 1960) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for North Carolina's 11th congressional district since 2023. A member of the Republican Party, he represented the 48th district in th ...
, who represents
North Carolina's 11th congressional district which was heavily affected by Hurricane Helene, released a statement to his constituents rebutting several claims. Writing in ''The Atlantic'', former US Department of Homeland Security official
Juliette Kayyem gave particular criticism to
Twitter under Elon Musk
Elon Musk completed acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk, the acquisition of Twitter in October 2022; Musk acted as Chief executive officer, CEO of Twitter until June 2023 when he was succeeded by Linda Yaccarino. In a move that, despite Yaccari ...
, where she argued recent changes to
content moderation
On websites that allow users to create content, content moderation is the process of detecting contributions that are irrelevant, obscene, illegal, harmful, or insulting. The purpose of content moderation is to remove or apply a warning label to ...
had made it more difficult to discern reliable sources.
[: "But under its current owner, Elon Musk, the platform, renamed X, has changed its algorithms, account-verification system, and content-moderation approach in ways that make the platform less reliable in a crisis."]
See also
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{{Conspiracy theories
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2024 controversies in the United States
2024 natural disasters in the United States
Hurricane season 2024
Hurricane season 2024
Hurricane season 2024
Hurricane Helene
Hurricane Milton
Hurricane season 2024
Right-wing politics in the United States
Weather modification in North America