Disaster Relief Head Blasts Fake Claims10/07 06:19

   

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. government's top disaster relief official said 
Sunday that false claims and conspiracy theories about the federal response to 
Hurricane Helene -- spread most prominently by Donald Trump -- are 
"demoralizing" aid workers and creating fear in people who need recovery 
assistance.

   "It's frankly ridiculous, and just plain false. This kind of rhetoric is not 
helpful to people," said Deanne Criswell, who leads the Federal Emergency 
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 
support of the state," she said, referring to North Carolina.

   Republicans, led by the former president, have helped foster a frenzy of 
misinformation over the past week among the communities most devastated by 
Helene, promoting a number of false claims, including that Washington is 
intentionally withholding aid to people in Republican areas.

   Trump accused FEMA of spending all its money to help immigrants who are in 
the United States illegally, while other critics assert that the government 
spends too much on Israel, Ukraine and other foreign countries.

   "FEMA absolutely has enough money for Helene response right now," Keith 
Turi, acting director of FEMA's Office of Response and Recovery said. He noted 
that Congress recently replenished the agency with $20 billion, and about $8 
billion of that is set aside for recovery from previous storms and mitigation 
projects.

   There also are outlandish theories that include warnings from far-right 
extremist groups that officials plan to bulldoze storm-damaged communities and 
seize the land from residents. A falsehood pushed by Rep. Marjorie Taylor 
Greene, R-Ga., asserts that Washington used weather control technology to steer 
Helene toward Republican voters in order to tilt the presidential election 
toward Democrat Kamala Harris.

   Criswell said on ABC's "This Week" that such baseless claims around the 
response to Helene, which caused catastrophic damage from Florida into the 
Appalachian mountains and a death toll that rose Sunday to at least 230, have 
created a sense of fear and mistrust from residents against the thousands of 
FEMA employees and volunteers on the ground.

   "We've had the local officials helping to push back on this dangerous -- 
truly dangerous narrative that is creating this fear of trying to reach out and 
help us or to register for help," she said.

   President Joe Biden said in a statement Sunday that his administration "will 
continue working hand-in-hand with local and state leaders --- regardless of 
political party and no matter how long it takes."

   Meantime, FEMA is preparing for Hurricane Milton, which rapidly intensified 
into a Category 1 storm on Sunday as it heads toward Florida.

   "We're working with the state there to understand what their requirements 
are going to be, so we can have those in place before it makes landfall," she 
said.