With Hurricane Milton set to make landfall in Florida this week—with likely devastating force—the intensity of the concern over the potential fury of this latest storm is only matched by discussion of the flood of misinformation that swept across social media after the last hurricane made landfall. In the wake of Hurricane Helene, which wreaked havoc across several southeastern states, conspiracy theories and falsehoods about the federal response to the storm have spread across sites like X and TikTok. In many cases, these lies were promoted by major political figures, including former President Donald Trump.

Despite efforts by federal officials, as well as state and local leaders, experts in emergency management, and in misinformation, worry that the increasingly charged atmosphere of unreliable information surrounding natural disasters could prove to be a persistent danger to the public for the foreseeable future.

“There are some indications here that this is just part of what disaster response is going to look like moving into the future,” said Samantha Montano, assistant professor in the Department of Emergency Management at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. Climate change is spiking the frequency and intensity of major storms, and with those disasters will come a charged atmosphere of falsehoods and conspiracies.

The Federal Emergency Management Administration has been the focal point of many of the lies and misinformation that have spread since Helene made landfall. The situation is severe enough that the agency has had to establish a “rumor response” page to combat falsehoods. Although state and local officials, including many Republicans, have urged constituents not to believe or spread false information, dodgy theories have continued to bounce across social media.

Deanne Criswell, the head of FEMA, said on Tuesday that the amount of misinformation had reached a level that she had “never seen before,” leading her to worry that people might not apply for necessary aid. “If it creates so much fear that my staff doesn’t want to go out in the field, then we’re not going to be in a position where we can help people,” she said. “I worry that they won’t apply for assistance, which means I can’t get them the necessary items they need to support them.”

Several factors contribute to the current atmosphere of misinformation around Helene. There is the charged political atmosphere surrounding the presidential election, exacerbated by Trump’s promotion of conspiracy theories about the Biden administration’s response to the hurricane. Trump has falsely claimed that the president has not been in contact with the governors........

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