FACT CHECK: Are There Armed Militias ‘Hunting’ FEMA Employees In North Carolina?
A post on Threads claims that “armed militias are hunting” employees with the
Post by @musicforkids123View on Threads
Verdict: False
There is no evidence that FEMA employees were being “hunted” by an “armed militia.”
Fact Check:
On Oct. 15, FEMA workers in North Carolina resumed their door-to-door hurricane relief services, as confirmed in a statement provided to CBS News. The neighborhood canvassing efforts had been temporarily suspended amid safety concerns for staff who are helping the community recover from Hurricane Helene.
The news came one day after a post on Threads suggested that “armed militias are hunting FEMA employees because of the MAGA disinformation.” The Oct. 14 claim on social media also said it was “time to vote Kamala Harris in and end Donald Trump once and for all.”
However, no reliable sources have confirmed that this statement is true, and representatives from both state and federal relief services have debunked the claim. The Threads post stems from information in an Oct. 13 report published by the Washington Post. In it, the outlet cites an email from a hurricane relief worker who said that FEMA recommended its North Carolina-based employees to relocate due to “trucks of armed militia claiming they were out hunting FEMA.”
In response to a request for comment from Check Your Fact, the federal agency provided an Oct. 14 press release announcing that relief services in North Carolina will “resume normal operations in the field and housing inspectors will resume scheduling inspections to ensure survivors get the assistance they need and deserve.”
The same release stated that, “out of [an] abundance of caution, FEMA made operational changes” during the weekend of Oct. 11-13 that were “based on threat information.” The agency added that the adjustment in services did not shut down the Disaster Recovery Centers and emphasized that “the threat was more limited than initially reported and [had been] mitigated by law enforcement.”
This release echoes the message of an undated statement from FEMA which rejected claims that its agents had pulled out of North Carolina as “false.” According to the agency, the “potential threat” to employees in the state was revealed on Oct. 12, leading to the decision to “shift from sending FEMA disaster survivors assistance teams into neighborhoods [and] knocking on doors to stationing them at neighborhood locations.”
