https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/28/politics/russia-china-cuba-hurricane-misinformation/index.html

https://archive.is/wip/QA1Tt

Russian, Chinese and Cuban operatives all spread misinformation about US government hurricane relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, a US official said Monday, citing recent US intelligence.

A China-linked social media account used a likely AI-generated image of Vice President Kamala Harris overlooking flood damage next to a sign falsely claiming that “all of the United States’ money went to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan,” the US official said in a statement to CNN.

Meanwhile, a Russian state-owned news agency shared a likely AI-generated image on the social media platform Telegram depicting a flooded Disney World, the official said. Russian operatives have also spread other “provocative hurricane-related content,” including some suggesting the US government was denying people disaster-relief funds.

Cuba has “amplified narratives” suggesting that US support for Israel and Ukraine has diverted resources from disaster relief efforts, echoing some of the same themes as Russia and China, according to the US official.

It’s the clearest statement yet from the US government that foreign powers have spread false information about the two hurricanes that hit the US in September and October. Much of the false information about the federal response to the hurricanes has been spread by Americans, including the billionaire Elon Musk, who owns the social media platform X. False claims that relief funds were being given to migrants, for example, have gone viral.

But covert foreign activity like what the US official described can further amplify the information to reach additional online users. US officials have been increasingly concerned that that sort of disinformation lead to violence.

A North Carolina man was arrested this month for allegedly threatening harm against FEMA employees responding to Helene.

President Joe Biden grew so concerned about the spread of false information about hurricane relief efforts that he requested a memorandum from his team on the federal government’s digital response, including how officials were remediating misinformation, CNN previously reported. Senior US officials also instructed public affairs teams at federal agencies to ramp up social media posts from government accounts with photos that illustrate how federal workers are clearing debris and dispensing aid.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/01/us/north-carolina-asheville-hurricane-helene-aftermath/index.html

“The conditions that I’m seeing here in western North Carolina are almost exactly the same, minus the gunfire and artillery shells,” he told CNN on Monday from the town hall in Waynesville, 30 miles west of the city of Asheville. “You have people who don’t have water, they don’t have medications, they don’t have personal hygiene products.

“And,” he added, “they don’t have any way to get them.”

And now, it’s that beloved southern Appalachian terrain isolating the city and many even more remote neighboring enclaves as residents begin the long, hard work of recovering from a storm that dumped as much as 30 inches of rain in the region and left at least 140 dead across six states.

Five days after Helene hit, hundreds in western North Carolina are still missing. And while President Joe Biden has approved the governor’s request to declare a major disaster in 25 counties, the emergency response remains difficult, an operation grappling with decimated roads and complicated by communication outages.

What is clear is what people here need: essentials like water, food and gas. And they’re adamant they need it now.

“There’s no help or relief from the government or FEMA right now,” Tyler Kotch, the owner of an Asheville pizza joint, told CNN on Monday. “It’s four days out, and we’re still waiting on that.”

https://apnews.com/article/hurricane-helene-congress-fema-funding-5be4f18e00ce2b509d6830410cf2c1cb

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Emergency Management Agency can meet immediate needs but does not have enough funding to make it through the hurricane season, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters Wednesday.

The agency is being stretched as it works with states to assess damage from Hurricane Helene and delivers meals, water, generators and other critical supplies. The storm struck Florida last week, then plowed through several states in the Southeast, flooding towns and killing more than 160 people.

Mayorkas was not specific about how much additional money the agency may need, but his remarks on Air Force One underscored concerns voiced by President Joe Biden and some lawmakers earlier this week that Congress may need to pass a supplemental spending bill this fall to help states with recovery efforts.

“We are meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have. We are expecting another hurricane hitting,” Mayorkas said. “FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season.”

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gdw2w5dnwo

At least 180 people are now known to have died. More than 600 are still unaccounted for. Thousands are without power, and fresh water supplies are dwindling.

The government has deployed 6,000 National Guard members and 4,800 federal aid workers to the region, but many have criticised the response, saying that the bulk of rescue efforts have been left up to volunteers.

Even before the storm, mobile reception and Wi-Fi was patchy. Poverty and rough, rural roads have added to the difficulties people have faced getting out.

“A lot of times people say ‘well, why didn’t they leave?’,” Diello said. “Well maybe you can't afford a tank of gas, and how many nights in a hotel in a safer place? Maybe you know you can't leave your family, maybe you can't leave your job.”

In Green Valley, a woman, who did not want the BBC to use her name, said that five days after the storm she still had no power and no communication with the outside world.

Her only functioning device was a battery powered antenna radio that she said was decades-old.

"If you're raised in the mountains, you'll cope," she said.

https://www.axios.com/local/raleigh/2024/10/20/helene-aftermath-missing-unaccounted-hurricane-western-north-carolina

"It's frustration that these numbers are inaccurate, and [you can't] tell us that they are [accurate]. And frustration that we're also 22 days without water. And then the third part of it is … feeling like we've been forgotten, and most people [outside of the area] don't really understand the extent."

Tygielski, who is cofounder of Partners in Kind, a social impact entertainment equity fund and foundation, says she's received work emails from people in California and other far-off states that begin with greetings like, "I hope your cleanup went well." Her internal reaction is usually something along the lines of, "Have you even heard about what's happening here?"

Local outlets have done the painstaking work of trying to collect stories of the horror. The Asheville Citizen-Times this week published a story of two brothers, 9 and 7, who were swept away in the floodwaters along with their mother. Their bodies weren't found until a week later.

The two boys were among four Buncombe County Schools students who died. Earlier this week, the county school system said 21 other children remained unaccounted for. On Friday, they updated to say that all 21 had been found alive. Still, as the system aims for an Oct. 25 reopening date, leaders know that more than 400 students experienced a "significant impact" from the storm and more than 700 are now experiencing homelessness, the Citizen-Times reports.

Toss in that this is already a region full of residents distrustful of the government, who've lived on family land for generations, and who see programs such as FEMA's flood mitigation program, which buys out flooded homes and helps people move to safer areas, as land grabs.

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/16/north-carolina-helene-federal-money-00183503

Congress has poured billions of dollars into programs to buy out homeowners and help them relocate to safer areas after natural disasters. But they’re not expected to win over many residents in flood-ravaged rural North Carolina.

Powerful storms, worsened by climate change, are causing more frequent flooding and destroying communities once considered safe — including those wiped out by Hurricane Helene, which killed more than 230 people across the Southeast.

Zeb Smathers, the mayor of Canton in western North Carolina, said he’s no longer comfortable persuading people and businesses to remain after heavy rainfall from Helene overflowed the banks of the Pigeon River just three years after a “once-in-a-lifetime” flood hit the town of 4,400. So Smathers is looking to federal programs to help residents and business owners who want to move out of the town.

https://www.newsweek.com/william-parsons-fema-threats-north-carolina-1970638

After being released on a $10,000 bond, he spoke to Fox8 and explained that he believed FEMA was failing to help hurricane victims.

He said: "I viewed it as if our people are sitting here on American soil, and they're refusing to aid our people. So we were going to go up there and forcefully remove that fence."

But, after he "went up and saw that there was absolutely nothing there," he "stayed and volunteered all day."

Parsons added: "They want to sit here and lie and say I was carrying guns around. I had one gun on me, which was legally owned and sitting on the side of my hip, and I had a rifle and another pistol that were in my vehicle that were both lawful and legal to own."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/15/fema-threats-arrest-hurricane-helene

The Rutherford sheriff’s office said initial reports that truckloads of “armed militia” had threatened Fema workers in the area were imprecise. “Parsons acted alone, and there were no truckloads of militia,” the sheriff’s office alleged.

I guess mainstream media is all owned by russia, china, ect too :shrugs:.