Hurricanes Are Not Designed By Government, Republican Reminds Troops

Photo: Angela Wilhelm/Archives The Asheville Citizen-Times via Associated Press “Hurricane Helene was not the result of the government manipulating the weather to gain access to and seize the lithium deposits in Chimney Rock [a small town in the state],” Chuck Edwards said.

Fabien Deglise

Published at 12:53

• United States

Strong winds and hard times in the United States, where on Tuesday a Republican elected official from North Carolina decided to take up his pen to remind his contemporaries that “no one can control the weather” and that hurricane Helene, which hit his state at the end of September, “was not designed by the government.”

The reminder of facts and scientific evidence was deemed necessary by Chuck Edwards, who represents North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District in Washington, after a series of politically charged conspiracy theories took root in the wake of the hurricane in several states.

“Hurricane Helene was not the result of government manipulation of the weather to gain access to and seize the lithium deposits at Chimney Rock [a small village in the state],” Edwards said in a statement, responding to a persistent online rumor largely spread by Donald Trump’s Republicans to attack the Democratic camp in the current presidential campaign.

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“No one has the geoengineering technology or capability to create a hurricane,” he said. “Current geoengineering technology can be used as a large-scale intervention to mitigate the negative impacts of natural weather events, but it cannot be used to create or manipulate hurricanes.”

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“Scandalous rumors”

Since September 24, and the arrival of hurricane HeleneOn the west coast of Florida, the management of this climate crisis must now take place in a climate of intense political division and misinformation.

“Outrageous rumors,” says Mr. Edwards, which are also likely to follow the passage of the next hurricane, Milton, which is approaching the American coast. The storm, which has been forming for several days over the Gulf of Mexico, is expected to hit late Wednesday.

The Republican congressman urged his voters on Tuesday to “make sure you check the facts” they read “with a reliable source.” “We are seeing a level of support nationally that is unprecedented compared to other disasters, but amid all of this support, we are also seeing an increase in unreliable sources trying to sow chaos by spreading fake news, conspiracy theories and rumors about hurricane response in our mountains,” he added.

Chuck Edwards is thus forced to point out that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, “does not stop trucks carrying donations” to “confiscate them,” that it “did not divert funds” from hurricane relief “to border management and international assistance,” and that it “cannot seize your property and land,” he wrote.

Ironically, a study released Wednesday by the World Weather Attribution Network came remember that the violence of hurricane Helene, which has killed more than 230 people so far, was caused by climate change, rather than government-controlled geoengineering. Fossil fuels, which the 2024 Republican presidential candidate regularly promotes with calls for increased drilling, have increased the likelihood of hurricanes like Helene occurring in this region of the United States by 2.5 times, according to these scientists. These energies are the main culprits of global warming.