Fact check: In the US, is FEMA’s $750 hurricane relief a loan?

In the wake of Hurricane Helene, we fact-check the online misinformation about assistance payments to disaster survivors.

Besides responding to the destruction caused by Hurricane Helene in the US, emergency workers are battling online misinformation that could dissuade survivors from accepting disaster relief.

Some false claims have focused on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) $750 payments for essential supplies.

“BREAKING: Hurricane victims are now realizing that the $750 from FEMA that Kamala Harris is offering them is actually a loan, not real relief,” Philip Anderson wrote on X on October 4. “And that if they don’t pay it back the feds can seize their property. These people don’t even have property anymore because of the hurricane.”

Anderson, of Smith County, Texas, pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from his actions on January 6, 2021, at the US Capitol. His X handle is @VoteHarrisOut.

This narrative also spread on TikTok. In one video that drew almost 400,000 views as of October 6, an unidentified man described as a “FEMA inspector” issued what he described as a “dire warning”.