Hurricane Helene was devastating. As I’m writing this, Hurricane Milton is about to hit Florida and it’s not going to be pretty.

What is truly sick is the level of misinformation* and disinformation* coming from Trump, Elon Musk and other MAGA extremists. It has real impacts. It’s making it harder for those responding to the storms to do their jobs. People aren’t applying for the assistance they’re entitled to because of rumors they’ve read online.

Don’t believe me though, here’s reporting citing the head of FEMA and the president. FEMA have had to put up a fact checking website to counter rumors going around on social media.

If you or family or friends are impacted and need to access help, please check primary sources and don’t believe everything you read on social media. There are people posting there who do not have your best interests at heart and are trying to score cheap political points.

I hope everyone takes note of the behavior of the people spreading falsehoods and votes accordingly in November. America needs competent leadership. We don’t need people who actively hinder the adults doing the important work of helping people in their hour of need.

* Disinformation is intentionally false information, designed to mislead. Misinformation lacks the malicious intent but it’s also incorrect or misleading. Unfortunately there’s an abundance of both about the hurricane relief.