White House blasts false claims about deadly storm

The White House moved last weekend to quash claims that government officials control the weather, including a far-fetched rumour circulating on social media that Hurricane Helene was an engineered storm to allow corporations to mine lithium deposits.

- Edward Helmore

"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".

The White House said the rumours, 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 Joe Biden told lawmakers to refill the coffers of disaster relief programmes as the projected recovery and rebuilding costs related to Hurricane Helene are estimated to be as much as $200bn over 10 years.