North Carolina Republican Pleads To End Right-Wing Conspiracy Theories About Helene Disaster Recovery

A Republican senator in the North Carolina legislature has issued a public plea for people to stop spreading conspiracy theories about the disaster recovery efforts in areas ravaged by flooding from Hurricane Helene.

In a Thursday afternoon Facebook post , state Sen. Kevin Corbin, who represents the state’s westernmost area, asked his followers for a favor: “Will you all help STOP this conspiracy theory junk that is floating all over Facebook and the internet about the floods in WNC.”

Corbin listed several examples: “FEMA is stealing money from donations, body bags ordered but government has denied, bodies not being buried, government is controlling the weather from Antarctica, government is trying to get lithium from WNC, stacks of bodies left at hospitals, and on and on and on.”

Since making landfall last week and churning inland, the storm has killed more than 200 people across six states, with more than 70 of those deaths in Asheville and western North Carolina alone. But on social media, right-wing influencers have described an even more gruesome scenario, with a federal government that’s not just indifferent but actively hostile to lifesaving efforts by private citizens.

The country singer Jon Rich, for example, told his million-plus followers on X , formerly Twitter, that a friend in law enforcement reported to him they had already “used over 500 body bags, and there are bodies in trees, mud, cars, houses, everywhere,” and that the federal government had provided no support.

In fact, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and state National Guard troops have deployed in the storm-torn areas to perform search-and-rescue operations, restore electricity and distribute food and water. Storm victims are also