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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Neither Harris nor Trump outline specific disaster-relief policies on their website.</li><li>Their records, however, offer clues into how they'd deal with natural disasters as president.</li></ul>As another <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hurricane-milton-evacuation-empty-gas-station-full-hotels-gridlock-traffic-2024-10">hurricane</a> threatens to devastate swaths of the Southeast, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are under new scrutiny about their disaster response strategies. And though neither have specifically addressed how they'd approach disaster relief on their campaign websites, their environmental records offer clues into how they might deal with similar crises in the future.When Hurricane Helene bore down on six states, and with particular force in North Carolina and Georgia, both Harris and Trump said that the focus should be on providing aid, not politics. But the storm, which has killed more than 230 people and destroyed entire towns, has already crept into the presidential race. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hurricane-helene-milton-tampa-florida-desantis-clean-disaster-dangerous-2024-10">Hurricane Milton is expected to hit Florida</a> on Wednesday night, only exacerbating the focus on environmental devastation."Disasters are always political," Thomas Birkland, a political scientist at North Carolina State University who studies the politics of national disasters, told Business Insider. He said that disaster relief is not, however, usually <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hurricane-milton-category-five-threatens-florida-fema-funding-2024-10">discussed during campaigns</a>.Timothy Kneeland, a professor at Nazareth University who studies politics and natural disasters, thinks that as hurricanes become more common, candidates should address them more explicitly."Having a short but clear statement on disasters should be part of any campaigner's policy," he wrote in a statement to BI.Both candidates have visited impacted areas, with Trump visiting Georgia on September 30 and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kamala-harris-donald-trump-crises-middle-east-strike-hurricane-election-2024-10">Harris on October 2</a>. Republicans criticized Harris for attending a fundraising event in California when Helene struck, while she maintained that politicians should stay out of the most devastated areas as first responders begin their early work.In the days since Hurricane Helene, Trump has spread misinformation about the storm and response efforts, prompting the Federal Emergency Management Agency to publish a fact-checking page. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hurricane-helene-relief-disinformation-misinformation-north-carolina-democrats-republicans-2024-10">Democrats and Republicans alike</a> say that the baseless claims are complicating <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-elon-musk-starlink-hurricane-helene-fema-2024-9">clean-up efforts</a>, and Harris has put out a digital ad slamming his former disaster relief. When he was president, Trump responded to several hurricanes. As with Hurricane Helene, he <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.vox.com/politics/376982/trump-hurricane-helene-fema-lies-debunked">publicized</a> misinformation. When Hurricane Dorian threatened Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, he incorrectly said that its path included Alabama as well. During a briefing in the Oval Office, he showed a map of the hurricane's path that included a Sharpie mark extending the storm's reach to Alabama. Trump also falsely claimed that the death toll from Hurricane Maria in 2017 was overblown, the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/10/08/trump-hurricane-helene-natural-disasters/">Washington Post reported</a>.The former president occasionally threatened to hold back disaster funding over political spats. In 2020, for example, he floated withholding money from flood-ravaged Michigan because he was frustrated with absentee voting procedures in the state."A charitable interpretation would be mixed on crisis management," Birkland told BI about Trump's past responses to natural disasters. Kneeland said that storm victims and disaster experts largely criticized his handling of Hurricane Maria.During his time in office, Trump's administration rolled back more than 125 environmental rules, the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks-list.html">Washington Post</a> found, with a big focus on deregulating the fossil fuel industry. Trump's campaign has, according to Birkland, "been pretty clear that it disdains alternative fuels."Harris doesn't have a presidential record to back up her approach to disaster relief, but Birkland anticipates she'd take a relatively similar approach to President Joe Biden.As attorney general, Harris prosecuted oil companies that broke environmental rules. During her tenure as vice president, she voted for the Inflation Reduction Act, which devoted $370 billion to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.But both Birkland and Kneeland told BI that Harris has become less aggressive about addressing climate change this election, likely in an attempt to court more moderate voters."Harris' position is a little murkier," Birkland said. "Harris has been clear that we should be doing things like alternative energy, but also supports, as of recent months, continued fossil fuel production. So it's kind of a both-and strategy."Presidents are somewhat limited in their disaster responses — both Kneeland and Birkland told BI that states and local governments lead disaster responses, with the federal government's assistance."Even when FEMA is on the ground they must work within the structure of existing state and local government," Kneeland said in his written statement. The responsibility is, he said, layered throughout the government.Regardless, all eyes are on how Harris and Trump respond to the twin storms — and the outcome of the election could theoretically hang in the balance. Kneeland said that disaster response can either greatly boost or doom an incumbent, pointing to instances as varied as Hurricane Betsey in 1965, Hurricane Andrew in 1992, and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.Though Birkland doesn't anticipate that the hurricanes will sway many voters, he said that even a small impact in swing states could matter."I think most people's minds are made up. I think that you're really dealing with the margins," he said. "On the other hand, this election is going to be won or lost on the margins, so that matters."

Hurricanes are taking the election by storm. Here's where Harris and Trump stand on natural disaster policies.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Officials are urging people to stop spreading misinformation amid Hurricane Helene recovery efforts.</li><li>Both Republicans and Democrats have called out misinformation and false rumors.</li></ul>As rescue workers respond to the destruction in North Carolina after <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hurricane-helene-north-carolina-flood-insurance-2024-10">Hurricane Helene</a>, government officials on both sides of the aisle are calling for a misinformation cease-fire.Since the hurricane made <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hurricane-helene-slams-florida-power-outages-flooding-2024-9">landfall in Florida</a> and swept up <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/analysts-estimate-up-to-34-billion-damage-from-hurricane-helene-2024-10">to the Carolinas</a>, the storm itself has been swept up in another powerful force: American politics in a presidential election year.Some social media users are sharing unsubstantiated claims, some accompanied by fake AI-generated photos, criticizing the response from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the government's disaster relief group, and, by extension, the administration of President Joe Biden."It's not necessarily unusual for emergency situations to be breeding grounds for mis- and disinformation, but I do think we've seen a particularly large amount of false claims proliferating at this time," Mekela Panditharatne, a senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonprofit policy institute at New York University's School of Law, told Business Insider. "I don't think it's a coincidence that it's so close to a very consequential national election."<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/elon-musk">Elon Musk</a>, the billionaire owner of X and a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-donald-trump-rally-butler-pennsylvania-assassination-attempt-2024-10">vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump</a>, has posted on his social media network saying that "<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1842284913279586447">FEMA is both failing to help AND won't let others help</a>" and has reposted similar claims from others.Musk shared another claim that Asheville, North Carolina's airspace had been closed to block recovery efforts, prompting a fact-check from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who said the Federal Aviation Administration was not shutting down the airspace. Buttigieg <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/SecretaryPete/status/1842271678274928964">told</a> Musk to call him with any issues, and after they <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.msnbc.com/inside-with-jen-psaki/watch/-he-called-buttigieg-reveals-details-of-conversation-with-elon-musk-about-storm-response-221029445906">spoke on the phone</a>, Musk posted that flights were underway and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1842350122899739050">thanked</a> Buttigieg.Trump has seized on the disaster to criticize the Biden administration and, by extension, his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, saying the Biden administration "stole the FEMA money" and "spent it all on illegal migrants," the Washington Post reported.His comments came after Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said FEMA would need more money from Congress to get it through the rest of hurricane season.A <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/10/04/no-biden-didnt-take-fema-relief-money-use-migrants-trump-did/">Washington Post</a> investigation found no evidence that the Biden administration used disaster relief funds on the migrant crisis. However, amid hurricane season in 2019, Trump himself approved using $155 million in disaster relief funds for immigration detention at the border, the Post reported.<h2 id="27fd660a-73db-4a3c-9a26-23e6b84ae71d">Bipartisan calls to stop spreading 'junk' information</h2>Following the spike in false rumors, FEMA created a searchable <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.fema.gov/disaster/current/hurricane-helene/rumor-response">fact-checking page</a> to tackle misinformation about the relief efforts. In North Carolina, the Department of Public Safety also shared a fact-check on social media, which Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper has reposted.Republicans have also joined the fight against the false information. Kevin Corbin, a Republican member of the North Carolina Senate, issued a plea on <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.facebook.com/kevin.corbin/posts/pfbid02VZiZFjsikbNeD3AKwkkpv5nnXpmkxWr5sJRG1G51D6yN82NvywWVaA8M8XjcNdeol">Facebook</a> for people to stop spreading "conspiracy theory junk." He listed bizarre claims that he said he and other officials have heard, ranging from accusations that "FEMA is stealing money from donations" to the "government is controlling the weather from Antarctica.""It is just a distraction to people trying to do their job," Corbin wrote.<div type="image" title="A young man hands supplies down to a woman from the bed of a truck amid hurricane recovery efforts." height="3050" width="4575" msid="113997193" hostid="261" sizebytes="310870"></div>US Sen. Thom Tillis, also a Republican, echoed Corbin's comments on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/thom-tillis-senator-north-carolina-face-the-nation-transcript-10-06-2024/">CBS News</a> on Sunday. He said many of the claims are "not even from people on the ground" and complicate rescue and recovery operations."It's at the expense of the hard-working first responders and people that are just trying to recover their life," Tillis said. "Quite honestly, most of what I've seen out there is a distraction and not helping the core of the effort right here, which is to save lives and start rebuilding."Panditharatne told BI that the spread of misinformation can "dissuade people from seeking the assistance that they need in this time of crisis.""It's perfectly legitimate to express an opinion or criticize the sufficiency of a response, but a number of the claims that we are seeing, particularly from high profile actors and politicians, are baseless, and they're contradicting verifiable facts or unsubstantiated by evidence," she said. "Where that is the case, I think it can divert public information and resources and demoralize officials on the ground."In a crisis, there may be gaps in available information, creating a vacuum for misinformation to "flood in to fill the void," Panditharatne said. However, she added that's not an excuse."I think anyone like Musk, who has a significant influence over the information ecosystem, should feel a sense of responsibility to promote information that doesn't undermine people's ability to access the aid that they need or undermine officials' response to a crisis," she said.The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Representatives for X also did not immediately respond.

Both Democrats and Republicans in North Carolina say misinformation is complicating Hurricane Helene relief efforts

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Hurricanes are taking the election by storm. Here's where Harris and Trump stand on natural disaster policies.

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Both Democrats and Republicans in North Carolina say misinformation is complicating Hurricane Helene relief efforts

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