In reflecting on the fury of back-to-back hurricanes, meteorologists who charted their paths are recoiling from the blame game of conspiracy theorists and misinformation.
Stories of ignorance, lies, harm and even death threats filled their inboxes and social media while they worked tirelessly to dissect the atmospheric science of Helene and Milton, pinpointing their ferocity and locations.
“Something clearly has changed within the last year,” veteran meteorologist James Spann told Rolling Stone magazine.
“We know some of it is bots,” he added, “But some of it is coming from people that honestly believe the moon disappeared because the government nuked it to control the hurricanes, or that the government used chemtrails (toxic agents) to spray our skies with chemicals to steer Helene into the mountains of North Carolina.”
Spann has been forecasting weather for more than 45 years as a TV meteorologist and podcaster in Birmingham, Alabama. He’s upset with a “society full of hate anger, rage and the inability to think clearly.”
He didn’t mention far-right Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia, but she fits the description. Greene falsely blames the federal government for steering Hurricane Helene to parts of Georgia and North Carolina populated by GOP voters.
Her 1.2 million followers on the social network X received a post saying it is “ridiculous to lie and say it can’t be done.” She alluded in a later TV interview to the government’s ability to use lasers to control the weather.
That’s simply a wacko conspiracy theory that frustrates meteorologists such as Matthew Cappucci to no end. He works with the Washington (D.C.) Weather Gang forecasters.
Atmospheric science is one field that doesn’t care about politics, he says. “If a tornado is coming down the road at you, it doesn’t check your voter registration.”
Still, that fact dose not deter the politicizing of natural disasters, especially in an election year.
Former president Donald Trump promptly accused his election rival Kamala Harris and President Biden of diverting federal disaster relief funds to unlawful immigrants instead of hurricane victims. Biden called it a lie, saying not one cent of disaster funds has gone to migrants.
Trump paid no mind. He kept repeating the accusation on the campaign trail despite some concerned Republicans telling him to drop it. Biden told him to “get a life.”
Harris mixed it up with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis when he refused to take her phone call to offer support during Hurricane Milton. She called the rejection “selfish.” He responded he had already spoken with Biden. “She has no role in this,” said DeSantis.
FEMA Director Deanne Criswell said untruths and misstatements about the agency’s disaster funds and assignment of resources to states struck by hurricane destruction confuses victims of the disasters. Some of them, she said, have not been reaching out for help due to the baseless misinformation.
She urged victims who need help to contact a FEMA field agent or at https://www.fema.gov/assistance/individual/program. There is also a hurricane rumor response page at https://www.fema.gov/disaster/current/hurricane-helene/rumor-response.
Like the meteorologists, said Criswell, the FEMA staff and volunteers fear for their safety because of threatening posts on social media.
Insurance companies characterize hurricanes and other natural disasters as “an act of God” for which humans are not responsible. Yet scars from the devastation summon up fear and anxiety in victims who lost their homes and other belongings.
Sadly, those two emotions attract conspiracy theorists, social media disrupters and others bent on exploiting the state of shock.