CNN
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Local officials and aid groups working in communities affected by Hurricane Helene are urging residents to verify the information they share or repeat, saying a flood of false rumors is hampering recovery efforts.

The hurricane cut a destructive path through the southeastern United States a week ago, killing more than 200 people, plunging some rural communities into isolation and leaving tens of thousands in need of aid. As in previous disasters, broken lines of communication and a lack of immediately verifiable information led some to join in or make up stories and rumors that provided explanations for questions that might not be immediately answered, experts and officials say.

“When natural disasters occur, part of our response is to be afraid and interested in making sense of things,” Dr. David Harker, a professor and chair of philosophy and humanities at East Tennessee State University who has studied misinformation.

As a result, says Harker, “we are becoming hungrier for information of any kind that will help us make sense of a chaotic and frightening world.”

Some of the rumors circulating in Helene’s wake seem designed to exploit people’s preconceived political prejudices. A widespread rumor spread by former President Donald Trump and X owner Elon Musk suggests that the federal government is confiscating or otherwise redirecting Helene relief aid as part of a political ploy.

Without providing evidence, Trump claimed earlier this week that the Biden administration, along with Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, is withholding or redirecting aid because the hardest-hit areas are overwhelmingly Republican, while Musk claimed in a post on X That the Federal Emergency Management Agency is “actively blocking citizens trying to help.”

Trump has also made baseless claims that some of the redirected funds would be used to support migrants: “A billion dollars was stolen from FEMA to be used for illegal migrants,” he said Friday.

In fact, Trump is accusing the Biden administration of an act very similar to that of his time as president. In 2019, Trump’s administration transferred $155 million earmarked for FEMA disaster relief to support immigration enforcement.

Those rumors prompted many state and local officials — including other Republicans — to push back. North Carolina state Sen. Kevin Corbin, who represents a district in the hardest-hit western part of the state, posted an exasperated appeal on his Facebook page Thursday:

“Will you all help STOP this conspiracy theory nonsense that is being spread all over Facebook and the internet about the flooding in (Western North Carolina)?” Corbin asked his followers, adding that the rumors were “just a distraction be for the people who are trying to do their job.”

“Please don’t let these crazy stories consume you and don’t keep contacting your elected officials to see if they’re true,” Corbin said in the post.

Several state and federal agencies have also issued public appeals for clearer minds. In between posts sharing tips, resources and important information for communities affected by Helene, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency posted a “misinformation alert” on its Facebook page Wednesday, stating that state and federal agencies “do not Confiscate supplies.”

The American Red Cross posted a lengthy tweet Thursday denying several rumors and adding that misinformation is “impacting our ability to provide urgent relief and impacting the disaster responders who have put their own lives on hold to respond.” To help those in need.”

In a press conference Friday, both Cooper and the FEMA administrator said the rumors were having a real impact on recovery efforts on the ground.

The claims that the state government is asleep at the wheel are “demoralizing” the hundreds of National Guard soldiers who have been helping with the recovery effort. Cooper said: “When people talk on social media about nothing being done, that’s just not true .” and it’s frustrating for them.”

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said at the same press conference that false information could deter people who actually need help from seeking help: “This level of misinformation means they won’t even come to us.” They won’t even register, and I need people to register so that they can get what they are entitled to through our programs.”

While Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee denied that aid was being seized through state or federal disaster agency resources, he told a local television station, “There is some belief and understanding” that the source of the misinformation is “foreign sources, just to confuse them. “Ground what’s happening here.” Lee, a Republican, provided no evidence to support his claim of foreign interference, and a spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for information about what he meant.

But two prominent spreaders of false information and strange conspiracies are not bots or shadowy foreign agents. These are elected officials who represent some of the areas hardest hit by the storm.

North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, the state’s embattled Republican gubernatorial candidate, spent much of this week lambasting his own state’s response to the storm.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Robinson claimed that “virtually every single aircraft currently conducting missions is privately owned. The few that are not are owned by states other than North Carolina.” This statement directly contradicts an earlier one Tweet from the North Carolina National Guard, which reported it conducted 57 air missions and rescued more than 400 people.

“Our Soldiers and Airmen are working 24 hours a day in a dozen counties to give North Carolinians the help they need,” State Guard Commander Maj. Gen. Todd Hunt said in a tweet Wednesday.

Robinson also thanked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday for aid to his state and said, “Florida will rebuild the roads in North Carolina.” The executive director of the union that represents state workers in North Carolina disputed that assumption and said crews “have been working hard for days.”

“Our people at the DOT will appreciate the neighbors’ help, but how dare you run them as a cabinet agency and say something like that!” Ardis Watkins, executive director of the State Employees Association of North Carolina, responded.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who represents a north Georgia district also hit by the storm, suggested without evidence that a vague, shadowy force “can control the weather” in a tweet that drew comparisons to her suggestion earlier she became a congresswoman that deadly wildfires in California were caused by space lasers.

Spokespeople for Greene and Robinson did not immediately respond Friday to a request for clarification on their comments.

Local media outlets have been working around the clock to counter some of the more outlandish rumors, theories and AI-generated images that have emerged from the storm. But almost as quickly as one rumor is debunked, another emerges, sending callers to their elected officials and creating a traffic jam that may prevent people from requesting and receiving much-needed help, experts told CNN.

While social media has helped connect storm victims to relief supplies, enable them to check in with their loved ones and connect them to vital resources, it has also exacerbated and increased the spread of false information, which according to Officials are hindering recovery efforts, Harker, the East Tennessee State professor, pointed out.

“I think as a society we’re trying very hard to figure out how to achieve that balance, and of course some social media companies have introduced their own fact-checking systems that have mixed success,” Harker said. “I think what makes it particularly frustrating is clearly that social media could be an invaluable source of reliable information in these times.”