What happened
Federal and Florida officials Sunday warned residents of the Tampa area to start preparing for Hurricane Milton, expected to make landfall as a Category 3 storm on Wednesday, nearly two weeks after the region was hit by flooding from Hurricane Helene. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Deanne Criswell also slammed the flurry of misinformation being spread about the response to Helene. At least 230 people in six states have been confirmed dead from the storm.
Who said what?
“One of the country’s leading deceivers,” CNN said, has been Donald Trump, whose “barrage of lies and distortions” include claims that FEMA is intentionally ignoring Republican-leaning areas, spent its disaster relief budget on housing undocumented migrants and is offering Helene victims only $750.
The misinformation verges from “frankly ridiculous” and “just plain false” to “truly dangerous,” Criswell said on ABC’s “This week.” She and local officials said batting down the false claims was taking resources away from rescue and recovery operations. “Folks who just are begging for attention” or “want to sow seeds of chaos” are “the worst of us right now,” said Mayor Tim Futrelle of Boone, North Carolina.
Governors of affected states have generally lauded the federal response. “We have the resources that we need,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told CBS’s “Face the Nation,” though Congress should return to authorize additional funding soon. “I’m out here to say that we’re doing a good job,” he said Friday.
What next?
Sign up for The Week’s Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
To continue reading this article…
Create a free account
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Already have an account? Sign in
Subscribe to The Week
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Unlimited website access is included with Digital and Print + Digital subscriptions.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Source link
[redirect url=’https://fastpowers.com/’ sec=’3′]