Hurricanes Milton and Helen absolutely devastated large parts of the United States. But residents cleaning up flooded homes and businesses have another challenge to the recovery, one that hasn’t let up — viral confusion.
There are rumors that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is capping payments to disaster survivors at $750. lies, According to a fact-checking page established by the organization.
What about the one that says FEMA is preventing private planes from landing in affected areas to deliver supplies? Also lies.
The rumors have taken a political turn with some Republican politicians, including former President Donald Trump, Repeating them to large audiences. Deanne Criswell as FEMA administrator said recentlyThe vortex of misinformation is “the worst ever seen.”
“Misinformation is not uncommon in disasters. They come quickly. People see things that are ultimately not true.” Juliet KayemA Harvard crisis management expert who served as assistant secretary of homeland security in the Obama administration said: Today, explainedof Sean Rameswaram. “I think in many ways what we’re experiencing right now is objective lying.” The author of the book is also Kayem The Devil Never Sleeps: Learning to Survive in an Age of Disaster.
Below is a portion of their conversation, edited for length and clarity. There’s more in the full podcast, so take a listen Today, explained Wherever you get your podcast, incl Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, SpotifyAnd Stitcher.
Sean Rameswaram
For those who missed this data disaster, can you tell them what’s going on?
Juliet Kayem
If you look on social media, in the response environment, there is a lot of misinformation about how the Biden administration is responding, basic disaster response capabilities and regulations. Then, in particular, Donald Trump and Elon Musk are amplified by them and create their own reality which then has to be shot down by the already-excessive first responders, emergency managers and FEMA, which has created a rumor page on their website. Just to deal with this nonsense.
An example is Donald Trump consistently saying that all the money that should have been given to Americans affected by disasters was used to house illegal immigrants. not true There was a separate line item to support and shelter immigrants that Congress passed. That money was sent to FEMA for administration, but it is not replacing the Disaster Management Fund. It doesn’t even overlap. It is exactly the same entity that distributes these funds.
This creates a false divide between immigrants, who are not getting this money, and Americans, who may be mad that they are not getting the money they want for disaster relief. They frustrate emergency managers and volunteers. They put them at risk. I’ve talked to people at FEMA about what’s happening on the ground. They are deploying large numbers of people because they are worried about the backlash. Most importantly, it confuses victims about what they should do, what they have access to, and what is available to them.
Sean Rameswaram
You say that Donald Trump is causing some of this misinformation. Where is he doing it?
Juliet Kayem
In his assembly; On social media. At a recent rally, he suggested that if resources weren’t going to red states, more Republicans would die. It has no factual basis.
What’s interesting is that you see Republican governors pushing back on that narrative that they They want to get wealth. They know they have to work with the federal government to protect their citizens and start these recoveries.
One of the most outrageous, outrageous rumors circulating in the communications space is whether FEMA will take your home. FEMA has a process where they can buy your home. This is a very small program. That’s if you, the homeowner, and FEMA agree to a fair market value, and you don’t want to live there anymore because it’s flooded four years in a row, and that’s a logical transactional decision.
The narrative that they will take you home—what does it do? Well, it makes people very nervous about leaving their homes. And so you now hear people say, “I’m not going to leave, because if I leave my house, the government will take it.” They are the real-world effects of all these lies.
Sean Rameswaram
And you’re saying that it’s being expanded not just by other Republican politicians, but by the owner of Twitter?
Juliet Kayem
yes He is perhaps the greatest amplifier of confusion, Retweeting things that are clearly false.
What they are trying to do is create a divide in the community in two ways. One is the division between citizens and government, which has always been the strategy of that branch of MAGA-ism. still [there’s the divide] between citizens and their neighbors. It creates chaos, confusion and division.
I think that’s why you’re seeing such a concerted pushback by GOP governors, but FEMA and others who are calling it, because they know it could hurt their response capabilities. I should say that this is being done at a time when we are seeing our communication networks under pressure. Communication lost. It is difficult to communicate with people. And so their void is filled by this vulnerability that has life-or-death consequences.
Sean Rameswaram
During Hurricane Sandy, I definitely think social media is useful for people. It was useful for people going through Sandy, it was useful for government agencies to get information out. Is the age of social media a helpful tool in disaster?
Juliet Kayem
It’s over. Elon Musk breaks down “Disaster Twitter”.
The moment Twitter was born, the moment its founder realized its benefits, was during a small earthquake in San Francisco. It was one of those other social media platforms. But it was the real-time, authenticated information that flowed into people’s feeds that the leadership at Twitter began to take its responsibility in a disaster very seriously.
You had a whole system, with the government relying on Twitter to spread good information, and that whole system is down. This is the first internal disaster where it’s completely clear, Twitter for disaster management has broken across the board.
Sean Rameswaram
Is the error- and confusion surrounding Milton as bad as we saw it after Helen?
Juliet Kayem
You see it more online than in political leadership.
You have seen too many aggressive governments [and] FEMA pushback on that. They were ready now. Helen was — I think they were caught [by surprise]. So you’ve just seen a lot of hype, a lot of pushback on misinformation and even more [Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis, who pushed back some of that.
Sean Rameswaram
Do you think that makes an agency like FEMA more prepared for the next hurricane and the next storm, for misinformation?
Juliet Kayem
Yes, I think it will be exposed to misinformation and lies. I think this is going to be part of your emergency management plan. You are going to push back the rumor in a very formal way. It was done, but it was very fragmentary. I’ve seen language coming out of FEMA spokespeople that I’ve never seen before, basically just lying, especially on social media. So they’re using language, the freewheeling language of social media, which I think is important, rather than the sort of more formal language of government.
Sean Rameswaram
I think from the hype around Milton, the idea was that it could destroy Tampa. And it’s still early, but I don’t think that happened. Do you think this misinformation confirms and fuels the engine after such an event?
Juliet Kayem
Yes, it would be viewed overwhelmingly as, “Incompetent to govern, doesn’t know what it’s doing.” I think the next transition will be more difficult if you don’t see the kind of damage and the kind of death that you’re worried about. It’s something so common, it has a name: the preparation paradox.
If you’re prepared, you prepare the house, you prepare the communities, you can evacuate them, and the thing comes and the damage is less than what you were worried about — that’s why you wanted to evacuate. This is why you wanted to prepare the houses.
People will say, “What were you so worried about in the first place?” In other words, the government’s response, which may have minimized the damage and loss and death, may very well, conversely, have been viewed as wrong by the government’s original assessment. .
Sean Rameswaram
Could FEMA have done a better job during Helen and now Milton?
Juliet Kayem
It’s hard for me to know right now. In some ways, FEMA’s biggest challenge continues to be recovery How quickly can they deploy assets?
In Helen, the biggest lesson is how we communicate risk with Americans who don’t see themselves as at risk. Looking back, the only warnings that were issued were flood warnings issued to communities that were likely to flood. This is probably because people remember that the soil was very saturated due to the rains in earlier days. And I wonder if, in hindsight, the flood warning — will it move people? Maybe we should think about how we approach risk, especially because we’re getting these events that really have no historical precedent.
