The White House moved Saturday to quash claims that government officials control the weather, including a far-fetched rumor circulating on social media that Hurricane Helene was an engineered storm to allow corporations to mine regional lithium deposits.
“We have seen a large increase in false information circulating online related to the federal response to Hurricane Helene,” a statement said, pointing to a “number of scam artists, bad-faith actors, and others who want to sow chaos because they think it helps their political interests are promoting disinformation about the recovery effort.”
The White House said the rumors, which include claims that emergency disaster money had been spent housing immigrants and that relief funds would be limited to $750 per claim, were “wrong, dangerous” and said “it must stop immediately”.
The warning, which speaks to the intense political environment Helene figuratively crashed into, came hours after Biden told lawmakers to refill the coffers of disaster relief programs as the projected recovery and rebuilding costs related to Hurricane Helene are estimated to be as much as $200bn over 10 years.
In a letter sent to congressional leaders, the president said while the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) and the Department of Defense are able to meet “critical life-saving and life-sustaining missions and will continue to do so within present funding levels”, they will need additional funding.
“My administration has provided robust...
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