Florida braces for Milton, FEMA head slams 'dangerous' Helene misinformation

Another potentially devastating storm barreled toward the Florida coast on Sunday, as the head of the US disaster relief agency lashed out at a "dangerous" misinformation war being waged over the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the new storm, Milton, had intensified into a Category 1 hurricane Sunday with maximum sustained winds of 80 miles (130 kilometers) an hour.

Milton was churning in the Gulf of Mexico, southwest of Tampa, with nothing but 800 miles of warm ocean between it and the Florida coast -- an area still reeling from Helene's catastrophic winds and storm surge.

It could hit by midweek as a major storm, the NHC said.

President Joe Biden was briefed on Milton and said in a statement that his administration was readying "life-saving resources."

He also ordered an additional 500 active-duty troops sent to North Carolina to help with Helene response and recovery, joining 1,000 other troops, 6,000 national guards and 7,000 federal personnel already on the ground.

Deanne Criswell, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), said on ABC that federal authorities were "absolutely ready" for Milton.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis upped the number of counties under a state of emergency to 51 ahead of the storm, predicting Milton could have "major, major impacts," with storm surges of up to 20 feet (six meters).

Helene roared into the Florida coastline as a Category 4 storm on September 26 and carved a path of destruction inland, dumping torrential rainfall and causing flash flooding in remote towns in states such as North Carolina.

The storm has killed more than 220 people -- making it the deadliest natural disaster to hit the United States since 2005's Hurricane Katrina -- with the toll still rising.

Relief workers are racing to find survivors and to get power and drinking water to remote mountainous communities.

But that effort has been hit by a wave of false claims and conspiracy theories.

Among the litany of disinformation is the lie pushed by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump that relief funds have been misappropriated by his rival for the White House, Democrat Kamala Harris, and redirected toward migrants.

"It's frankly ridiculous and just plain false ... it's really a shame that we're putting politics ahead of helping people," Criswell told ABC.

It is a "truly dangerous narrative," she said.

The Trump administration nevertheless doubled down, repeating the assertion in a statement Sunday.

FEMA and outside fact-checkers note that a program under the agency's aegis to provide shelter and aid to migrants is funded directly by Congress, entirely separate from disaster-related funding.

ABC reported that law enforcement is monitoring threats toward FEMA officials and other recovery agencies prompted by the disinformation.

North Carolina Republican Senator Thom Tillis on Sunday urged residents to focus on recovery and ignore the damaging rhetoric.

"The last thing that the victims of Helene need right now is political posturing, finger-pointing, or conspiracy theories that only hurt the response effort," he said in a statement.

- 'Turn that garbage off' -

In addition to Trump's false claim, the Washington Post reported Sunday on other lies swirling around Helene that it said were "adding to the chaos and confusion."

They include a false claim that a dam was about to burst, which the Post said prompted hundreds of people to unnecessarily evacuate, and a "troubling" lie that officials planned to bulldoze bodies under the rubble in one North Carolina town.

One user suggested "a militia go against fema" in a post on X, formerly Twitter, which has received more than half a million views.

Asked about that post, Criswell said it "has a tremendous impact on the comfort level of our own employees to be able to go out there."

FEMA has begun debunking the rumors online, as have North Carolina authorities.

Much of the focus was on X.

Before the platform was purchased by Elon Musk, when it was still known as Twitter, it was a go-to place for disaster coordination and information sharing.

But the billionaire has allowed right-wing disinformation and conspiracy theories to flood the platform.

"When Musk bought Twitter, there were many of us in the disaster space who warned that there would likely be changes that would make the platform less useful during disasters," Sam Montano, a disaster expert, told the Post.

"I think that we're seeing that manifest now."