The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) decision to pause and then change some of its hurricane recovery efforts in North Carolina due to concerns about “armed militia” is sparking furious backlash online—and doing nothing to quell rampant conspiracies about the agency.
The Washington Post reported over the weekend that FEMA’s operational changes came “out of an abundance of caution” after U.S. military personnel “had come across … trucks of armed militia saying they were out hunting FEMA.”
One armed man—a self-described “harmful extremist”—was arrested for making threats to FEMA. Authorities stated he was acting alone and that the truckloads of militia reports were false.
FEMA’s handling of the threat, which appears to be limited to the one suspect, drew immediate outrage on social media and sparked an array of new conspiracy theories about the agency.
“There is a MAJOR Psy-Op going on to try and excuse FEMA response in North Carolina! Claiming ‘Armed militia is encountering the National Guard’” one person said. “Yet the Guard claims this is false? FEMA IS TRYING TO COVER THEIR TRACKS!!!!!”
Others described the reporting about it as “left-wing misinformation” in an attempt to cover for FEMA.
One woman blasted FEMA for depicting veterans and civilian volunteers as armed militia, noting that her husband was among the non-FEMA volunteers assisting with recovery efforts.
“They’re referring to veterans and civilians on leave as armed militia. You can’t make this up,” she wrote Sunday afternoon.
“I’m so angry rn I can’t see straight. My husband was in Green Mountain all weekend, recovering dead bodies,” she wrote in a separate post. “Came home last night, went to work and signed out on leave again. He is now a domestic terrorist. I need to take a break on here. I’ll get suspended if I don’t.”
She also amplified a video of a former Army Ranger criticizing FEMA’s response.
“I’ve seen 1 FEMA agent since I’ve been here. He approached the front gate of our facility, and his request was—get this—cooperate with local government,” he said, noting that the many of the volunteers are local law enforcement and firefighters.
He continued: “We’ve been reported to the authorities for domestic terrorism. We’re a bunch of special operation veterans. It doesn’t get any more American than what we’re doing. We’re here to help the people.”
The accounts of FEMA’s response to the volunteers is drawing a wave of conspiracies about the agency itself, whose work has already been hampered by misinformation.
“FEMA hates losing control. When FEMA loses control they can’t bid out large contracts for cleanup and recovery to their major democrat donors,” replied one user. “FEMA is a scam!”
“Is it possible FEMA was hijacked to become nothing more than a money laundering govt agency?” mused someone else. “They spend no money on helping ppl following a natural disaster. So what is their reason for existence? Except for money laundering, I see no other logical conclusion.”
“Same as Lahaina. Democrat land grab,” someone else replied to an account of FEMA not assisting an affected couple. “They destroy the area they want to steal, offer everyone $700, make sure the insurance companies (who fund their election) do not pay settlements, deny building permits. Steal the land.”
“What’s happening to these people are straight-up war crimes,” blasted another person.
The conspiracies swirling around FEMA follow a wave of conspiracies about the hurricane—and baseless claims that the devastating storm was secretly engineered by the government.
On its website, FEMA clarifies that it “cannot seize your property or land” and that applying for disaster assistance does not grant the government any authority over the property.
As of Sunday, FEMA had provided more than $96 million in housing and other assistance for over 75,000 households impacted in North Carolina. The agency says it’s continuing “to work closely with the State of North Carolina to reach as make people as possible where they are.”
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