“If people affected by a natural disaster don’t trust the volunteers enough to talk to them, they won’t get the assistance they need and deserve.”
Nan McCarthy
Please think before you post. When you spread false or misleading information about what’s going on in the areas affected by Hurricane Helene, you’re CONTRIBUTING to people’s suffering by making it harder for them to receive help. As someone whose spouse has stepped forward as a FEMA volunteer to help victims of a previous hurricane, I urge you to think about the consequences of posting misinformation before you hit the Share button. When a natural disaster hits, FEMA relies on emergency volunteers from other federal agencies (Surge Capacity Force) to supplement the efforts of its own agency’s emergency managers in providing assistance to individuals who’ve lost their homes and possessions due to hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, and the like.
These Surge Capacity Force volunteers are regular people like my husband who work for other federal agencies within Homeland Security (USCIS, TSA, CBP, etc) who leave their regular jobs & their families for 45 days at a time to support FEMA’s disaster relief efforts, deploying to catastrophic areas, often under austere conditions. Many of them (like my husband) are tasked with interacting directly with disaster victims by either going door-to-door or via impromptu relief centers set up to register people for assistance. This requires a certain level of TRUST from both the disaster victims themselves and the volunteers trying to help them. If people affected by a natural disaster don’t trust the volunteers enough to talk to them, they won’t get the assistance they need and deserve. Many of these volunteers are putting themselves in harm’s way not because they have to, but because they CHOSE to step away from their regular jobs & comfy homes to HELP fellow citizens experiencing the worst days of their lives. These volunteers leave behind family members who fully support their partner’s humanitarian efforts yet must also make adjustments and sacrifices in their daily lives due to the extended absence of someone they normally rely on for things like co-parenting and running a household.
Please remember that the people who work for FEMA (and those from other federal agencies who step forward to help during a major disaster like Helene) are people just like you and me. They have families. They’re walking the walk when it comes to being a good citizen and a good human.
It hurts me to see people I know posting misinformation that’s so, so easy to disprove, if only they’d take a pause before hitting that Share button to not only dig a little more deeply into the subject at hand but also to think about the CONSEQUENCES of spreading so much false information. You are not helping anyone, and in fact you’re making it harder for people to receive help.
For example, let’s talk about the memes going around that disaster victims will only receive $750 from FEMA. That $750 is the initial, upfront payout FEMA gives to people who’ve applied for assistance and who are in immediate need of things like food, water, baby formula, medication, & other emergency supplies. This $750 is an INITIAL payment FEMA gives to people while their applications for further assistance (like temporary housing, home repair costs, etc) are working their way through the system. This means that people who receive that upfront payout of $750 may also qualify for ADDITIONAL funds. The $750 is a rapid, temporary measure to literally keep people from dying while they wait for FEMA to assess each application for assistance out of the thousands received during any given disaster.
When you post stupid shit like the government is controlling the weather from Antarctica or the government is delegating resources according to voting patterns or FEMA is stealing donations or whatever other unfounded rumors you come across on the Internet, you’re discouraging disaster victims from reaching out to the very agencies and personnel who are there to help them.
I’m not posting this to open a discussion on immigration or Ukraine or any other political red herrings being tossed around right now to exploit the suffering of people affected by Hurricane Helene and to denigrate the efforts of hardworking federal employees and volunteers dedicated to helping them. Don’t @ me with your political viewpoints. I’m not interested in arguing with you and I’m definitely not interested in your whataboutisms. In fact unless you or a family member are out there right now working to assist the hurricane victims (or have done so in the past), and you’re tempted to use the comments section on this post to spread or defend your bonkers conspiracy theories, just don’t. I am pissed off enough that I even had to spend my Saturday morning composing this message. Social media can be used responsibly, carefully, and thoughtfully, or it can be used irresponsibly, carelessly, and thoughtlessly. Before you hit the Share button on a meme that paints an entire group of people as having ill intentions simply because they work or volunteer for a government agency (like FEMA or its sister agencies under DHS), take a moment to check yourself. Even if you don’t personally know my husband or anyone else who works for a federal agency, can you find it within your heart to think of these people as individuals who actually do care about public service and helping others? —Nan McCarthy, October 5, 2024
Nan McCarthy is the author of the Since You Went Away series, the Chat, Connect, Crash series, Live ’Til I Die, and Quark Design. A former managing editor and tech journalist, Nan founded Rainwater Press in 1992. A native Chicagoan, she’s also the spouse of a veteran who served 29 years in the Marine Corps. Nan and her husband live in the Midwest.
Nan McCarthy 