As Florida and the Southeast recover from two major hurricanes, conspiracy theories and falsehoods have surged to levels that the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency says are unprecedented. First responders, local officials and nonprofit organizations in the storm zones have had to dedicate time and resources to debunking false claims.
Officials say these falsehoods have real-world consequences, including preventing victims from evacuating or seeking help, distracting from recovery efforts and making the job of aid workers harder.
And while the scale of misinformation following Helene and Milton took some by surprise, the claims themselves follow a familiar pattern. Similar misinformation has followed other hurricanes and natural disasters, including exaggerated crime reports, fake or misleading visuals and outright scams. Researchers say understanding the misinformation is crucial to mitigating its spread and minimizing its impact.
Here is a look at some of the recurring themes to watch out for:
Unverified crime scares
In the aftermath of Helene, rumors spread online that people were slashing tires of trucks transporting aid to storm victims, a claim that local police said is not true.
Unverified crimes reports have followed storms for decades. After Hurricane Katrina devastated parts of Louisiana in 2005, officials later said claims of looting, murder, and rape, which were repeated by some news media and officials, were either exaggerated or false.
At one point, the Mayor of New Orleans reported multiple murders at the Louisiana Superdome, where thousands sheltered. The National Guard later said there were no homicides at the stadium.
A 2018 report by the Department of Homeland Security found that false claims often spread after disasters because verified information is slow to emerge, fuelling rumor and speculation.
Conspiracies
Jennie King, director of Climate Disinformation Research and Policy at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, said conspiracies blaming the government for hurricanes have also become routine. Researchers at the institute found this claim and others debunked by FEMA generated more than 160 million views online after Helene.
“If it is producing a visceral emotion, negative or positive, that should cause you to pause for breath,” King said. “Do a little bit of wider reading. And if you do find out that those claims are false or unsubstantiated, don’t give them additional oxygen.”
Fake or misleading photos or videos
Edited or misleading videos and images have become a regular feature of major weather events. As Hurricane Dorian approached Florida in 2019, old images circulated online that pushed false claims of looting.
After Sandy hit New York and New Jersey in 2013, researchers identified over 10,000 unique posts on Twitter, now called X, that contained fake images.
One of these images was the now-famous “street shark” — an edited image of a shark swimming along a highway — which has reappeared during multiple hurricanes since at least 2011.
Fact checkers also regularly debunk images and videos of landmarks and transportation hubs submerged in water, which can mislead the public during natural disasters.
A digitally altered image of planes under flood waters, created by an artist in an effort to warn about the potential impact of climate change, was falsely described as showing the effects of hurricanes in 2017 and 2018.
And after Hurricane Milton hit Florida, AI-generated images appearing to show flooding at Disney World spread online on multiple platforms.
AI tools have made it easier for people to publish misleading or completely fabricated visuals, according to Anupam Joshi, who co-authored a study on misleading visuals after Hurricane Sandy.
“You need to take everything you see online with a very healthy grain of salt,” said Joshi, the director of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Cybersecurity Institute.
Scams
Scammers often target victims of hurricanes and those wishing to help them. After Hurricane Katrina, scammers impersonated charities including the Red Cross, which was one of the reasons the U.S. Department of Justice established the National Center for Disaster Fraud.
Jun Zhuang, a researcher who studied misinformation online following Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, told CBS News that scammers solicit money from victims through fraudulent links.
“‘Hey, if you register to this link, you will get $200.’ Or the other way around, ‘Hey, please donate through this link,’ but you never know where your money is going to,” said Zhuang.
Historically, bad actors also target storm victims with offers of assistance. After Hurricane Sandy, fake “contractors” claimed that FEMA would reimburse survivors for damage assessments and rapid repairs to their homes. One of these scammers defrauded 30 people of about $1.9 million.
To avoid falling victim to scams, FEMA has advised people to be wary of unsolicited messages and to verify charities before donating.
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