FEMA deploys to rough terrain after Helene as it faces criticism, fights misinformation | The Federal Emergency Management Agency is facing logistical challenges and fighting false rumors as it responds to Helene, which made landfall as a major hurricane about a week ago

> The Federal Emergency Management Agency has deployed more than a thousand personnel and millions of meals and liters of water to the communities hard hit by Helene, but is struggling to reach some communities deep in mountainous and remote areas of North Carolina that were most affected by the storm.

> FEMA has deployed more than 1,500 personnel to respond to Helene. As of Friday, the agency had shipped more than 11.5 million meals, more than 12.6 million liters of water, more than 400,000 tarps and 150 generators to the affected region. The agency sent a similar number of personnel — roughly 2,000 — to Florida and the Southeast a week after Hurricane Ian struck there in 2022, according to a news release.

> About 6,700 National Guard members from 16 states were involved in relief operations as of Thursday, said Maj. Gen. Win Burkett, director of domestic operations and force development for the National Guard Bureau, along with roughly 1,000 active-duty troops.

> FEMA is at the center of a number of debates about the administration’s ability to respond to the crisis — fueled in part by the agency’s comments but also by mischaracterizations or incorrect information repeated on social media about the agency’s response.

> Politicians and others have spread false information about the response to the storm on social media. For example, some have claimed that the agency has run out of disaster response money and that storm victims can only receive $750 in federal assistance.

> Several right-wing influencers have used their large online followings to amplify these claims on X, which has declined to remove these posts or label them as misleading. The trend underscores how election-year politics — combined with lax misinformation policies by major tech platforms — are complicating efforts to keep communities safe.

> “There’s always misinformation that flows during disasters, but after Helene, it is really difficult to find good and accurate information,” said Samantha Montano, a disaster expert and assistant professor of emergency management at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy.

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