Politically charged rumors and conspiracy theories about Helene flourish on X

Avery Dull left her apartment in Hendersonville, N.C., with her baby daughter a day after she made a TikTok showing brown floodwater from Hurricane Helene swelling beneath her second-floor balcony. Staying with friends two hours away, and with her life in limbo, Dull has been spending a lot of time online.

"Usually I'm in bed by 10 p.m. I haven't gone to bed till 3 a.m. since this happened," she told NPR. "I mean, I've been up all day and night just trying to find any, any information I can whatsoever. It has been consuming me."

Having evacuated, Dull is turning to videos on TikTok to keep her up to date on her community.

"This is my hometown. And to see these places, just water up to the roof, I can't even comprehend it. … I walked those streets and they're just, I mean, sunk."

She constantly watches for death toll updates. "I want to know if any of my family members who I haven't heard from are alive and well. ... And every time I update, it goes up, like, five people."

People like Dull, as well as those still in their storm-damaged communities, are hungry for reliable information. When they turn to social media, they're finding mixed results. Some platforms don't have much news at all. Other platforms have enabled them to form groups that provide information and companionship.

And then there is X, formerly known as Twitter, where politically charged rumors flow freely. Emergency management researchers lament that the platform owned by Elon Musk, which was once considered a useful source of information in a disaster, is instead contributing to the chaos in Helene's wake.

The disaster became fodder for political attacks

The storm hit two swing states just a month before a close election, making criticisms about the