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A2 u.s. news
Monday 7 october 2024
U.S. disaster relief chief blasts false claims about Helene response

as a 'truly dangerous narrative'

By FARNOUSH AMIRI
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S.
government's top disaster re-
lief official said Sunday that
false claims and conspiracy
theories about the federal re-
sponse to Hurricane Helene
— spread most prominently
by Donald Trump — are "de-
moralizing" aid workers and
creating fear in people who
need recovery assistance.
"It's frankly ridiculous, and just
plain false. This kind of rheto-
ric is not helpful to people,"
said Deanne Criswell, who
leads the Federal Emergen-
cy Management Agency.
"It's really a shame that we're
putting politics ahead of
helping people, and that's
what we're here to do. We
have had the complete sup-
port of the state," she said,
President Joe Biden talks with Deanne Criswell, Administrator
of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), as
he arrives at Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport in
Greer, S.C., Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, to survey damage from
Hurricane Helene.
Associated Press
referring to North Carolina. Marjorie Taylor Greene,
Republicans, led by the for- R-Ga., asserts that Wash-
mer president, have helped ington used weather control
foster a frenzy of misinfor- technology to steer Helene
mation over the past week toward Republican voters in
among the communities order to tilt the presidential
most devastated by He- election toward Democrat
lene, promoting a number Kamala Harris. Criswell said
of false claims, including that on ABC's "This Week" that
Washington is intentionally such baseless claims around
withholding aid to people the response to Helene,
in Republican areas. which caused catastrophic
Trump accused FEMA of damage from Florida into the
spending all its money to Appalachian mountains and
help immigrants who are in a death toll that rose Sunday
the United States illegally, to at least 230, have created
while other critics assert that a sense of fear and mistrust
the government spends too from residents against the
much on Israel, Ukraine and thousands of FEMA employ-
other foreign countries. ees and volunteers on the
"FEMA absolutely has enough ground.
money for Helene response "We've had the local officials
right now," Keith Turi, acting helping to push back on this
director of FEMA's Office of dangerous -- truly dangerous
Response and Recovery narrative that is creating this
said. He noted that Con- fear of trying to reach out
gress recently replenished and help us or to register for
the agency with $20 billion, help," she said. President Joe
and about $8 billion of that Biden said in a statement
is set aside for recovery from Sunday that his administra-
previous storms and mitiga- tion "will continue working
tion projects. hand-in-hand with local and
There also are outlandish state leaders –- regardless of
theories that include warn- political party and no matter
ings from far-right extremist how long it takes."
groups that officials plan to Meantime, FEMA is preparing
bulldoze storm-damaged for Hurricane Milton, which
communities and seize the rapidly intensified into a Cat-
land from residents. egory 1 storm on Sunday as
A falsehood pushed by Rep. it heads toward Florida.q