Claim:
An audio clip authentically features a FEMA official saying, "We plan to execute between 70,000 and 80,000 ... we plan to evacuate between 70,000 and 80,000 people."
Rating:
Miscaptioned ( About this rating? )
A rumor circulating online in early October 2024 claimed that an audio clip featured a U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) official saying, "We plan to execute between 70,000 and 80,000," and then correcting the statement to, "We plan to evacuate between 70,000 and 80,000 people." Social media users shared videos showing their reactions to the audio, without displaying the person speaking the words.
At the time users shared this claim, people living in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, the Carolinas and Virginia were in the early stages of recovering from the devastation left by Hurricane Helene and also preparing for the next incoming storm: Hurricane Milton. As of Oct. 7, the death toll from Helene was over 230 known deceased persons.
As for the rumor, the audio clip originated from a matter having nothing to do with FEMA. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin misspoke the "execute" line during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 28, 2021. His statement featured the past-tense word "planned" rather than the present or future-tense "plan." The moment occurs in this C-SPAN video at the 22:13 mark , and can also be viewed below from a post on X:
On the next day, Austin misspoke yet again and corrected the same statement during a House Armed Services Committee hearing. C-SPAN captured that flubbed line as well, at the 18:08 mark in this video .
Both hearings centered on a congressional review of the failures occurring during the U.S. military's withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Users Falsely Claimed FEMA Said 'the Quiet Part Out Loud'
Social media websites hosted examples of users promoting the false FEMA rumor with the completely unrelated audio clip.
For example, several TikTok users posted reaction videos to the 2021 audio clip while misleadingly claiming in their onscreen captions that FEMA said "the quiet part out loud." At the time Snopes reviewed these four videos, all four featured muted audio. That muted audio possibly signaled TikTok took action against the misinformation efforts promoted in the videos, considering the ongoing life-saving efforts happening on the ground following Helene and prior to Milton.
Within hours, all but one of the four videos displayed the message, " Video currently unavailable."
These users' false videos received a combined total of hundreds of thousands of views.
Before some of the TikTok reaction videos became unavailable, users on X and other websites had already reposted the same clips.
TikTok Communications spokesperson Nicholas Smith told Snopes in an email, "I can confirm that all four videos that you shared — including the three TikTok videos that you linked to and the X video that had been stamped with the TikTok logo — were proactively removed from our platform for violating our Integrity and Authenticity Community Guidelines before your inquiry."
In another example, one user on X also falsely claimed ( archived ), "FEMA spokesperson just said they plan to EXECUTE 70K - 80K people. And then he corrected it to 'evacuate.' So now we know the cover story."
NC Official: False Helene Claims Are 'Heartbreaking'
We previously reported about the many false and unfounded claims circulating online about Helene, for example concerning the devastated mountain village of Chimney Rock, North Carolina.
Kerri Giles, a local resident who holds the post-Helene role of public information officer for the emergency operations center in Rutherford County, told us of online misinformation efforts, "It is heartbreaking when you are on the front lines with the sole mission of trying to save people, and people want to sit and throw darts at you. Your front-line people are some of the best humans you'll ever meet. And it is hard to process that much, and it's a waste of resources."
Sources:
Burns, Robert, and Lolita C. Baldor. "Joint Chiefs Chairman Calls Afghan War a 'Strategic Failure.'" The Associated Press , 28 Sept. 2021, https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-bombings-kabul-taliban-terrorism-d1c939fc224a988dc6117ae4a70840e6 .
"House Armed Services Committee Hearing on Afghanistan Withdrawal." C-SPAN.org , 29 Sept. 2021, https://www.c-span.org/video/?514922-1/house-armed-services-committee-hearing-afghanistan-withdrawal .
Raby, John, and Gabriela Aoun Angueira. "FEMA Administrator Continues Pushback against False Claims as Helene Death Toll Hits 230." The Associated Press , 7 Oct. 2024, https://apnews.com/article/hurricane-helene-fema-826effecab238ff0acf0556ad64b0df2 .
Schreiner, Bruce. "Death Toll from Hurricane Helene Rises to 227 as Grim Task of Recovering Bodies Continues." The Associated Press , 5 Oct. 2024, https://apnews.com/article/hurricane-helene-death-toll-asheville-north-carolina-34d1226bb31f79dfb2ff6827e40587fc .
"Sec. Austin: 'We Planned to Execute Between 70 and 80,000 – We Planned to Evacuate Between 70 and 80,000 People.'" Grabien.com , https://grabien.com/story.php?id=351715 .
"Senate Armed Services Committee Hearing on Afghanistan Withdrawal." C-SPAN.org , 28 Sept. 2021, https://www.c-span.org/video/?514537-1/senate-armed-services-committee-hearing-afghanistan-withdrawal .
Updates:
Oct. 8, 2024: We updated this story to add a response from a TikTok Communications spokesperson.
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