Note: This previously published article was updated on October 18, 2024

As Hurricane Milton tracked towards the Florida coast, veteran meteorologist John Morales delivered a poignant reminder of the need for urgent action on climate change. It’s something we all need to be deeply concerned about, he said.

“It’s just an incredible, incredible hurricane,” he told his viewers as he teared up and became overwhelmed at the plummeting barometric pressure, which had dropped 50 millibars in the previous 10 hours.

A veteran of several such weather events, Morales has guided Floridians through some of the state’s strongest hurricanes, including Andrew, Irma, Mathew and Maria.

Later, on social media, he said: “Extreme weather delivered by global warming has changed me. Frankly, you should be shaken too and demand climate action now.”

Scientists were astounded at the way Milton grew so quickly. It was the type of storm they had been warning about – the perfect combination of hot seas, humid air and low wind shear. A special feature was its highly symmetrical, circular core.

Adding to the growing concern as Milton approached, Weeknight Meteorologist Noah Bergren posted on X saying this storm was “nothing short of astronomical. The eye is tiny at nearly 3.8 miles wide. This hurricane is nearing the mathematical limit of what Earth’s atmosphere over this ocean water can produce.”

Shortly after the onslaught, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis quickly thanked God that it wasn’t as bad as it could have been – which was true – then came the rain. Then came the realisation that the tornados this nasty beast spawned had killed at least 14 people.

Of course, it was nothing like the outcome of Hurricane Helene 13 days earlier, where the devastation was much more widespread, and the death toll reached 300 by the time this post went live.

Unfortunately, and if the destruction and death toll weren’t enough, Milton and Helene added up to much more than this. There was the online horror as well.

Even if you bothered to read only a small part of it, you’d think people had also become completely dissociated from reality. These unfortunate events produced an absolute spew of conspiracy theorising and outright lies that racked up millions of views.

Alex Jones, remember Sandy Hook? And its outcome for Jones? That great oracle of the ‘truth’, this time, claimed Milton and Helene were “weather weapons” unleashed by the US government. So-called “truth seeker” accounts on X posted photos of condensation trails in the sky to baselessly allege that the government was “spraying Florida ahead of Hurricane Milton” to ensure maximum rainfall, “just like they did over Asheville!”

In a ‘normal’ world, any of it would be laughable if not for the fact that some of this stupidity racked up hundreds of thousands of views. To top it off, public servants distributing aid were issued death threats!

Elon Musk, who owns X, claimed that FEMA was “actively blocking shipments and seizing goods and services locally and locking them away to state they are their own. It’s very real and scary how much they have taken control to stop people helping.”

That post has been viewed more than 41 million times. Other influencers, such as the Trump sycophant Laura Loomer, urged their followers to disrupt the disaster agency’s efforts to help hurricane victims. “Do not comply with FEMA,” she posted on X. “This is a matter of survival.”

All this actually affected rescue co-ordinators on the ground.

First responders pleaded with residents, asking for help to combat the flood of lies and conspiracy theories. FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said that the volume of misinformation could hamper relief efforts.

“If it creates so much fear that my staff doesn’t want to go out in the field, then we’re not going to be in a position where we can help people,” she said in a news conference.

Some of us may want to make sense of it all, but in the words of a commonly accepted phrase many Kiwis will relate to, what else can anyone say except, How Bizarre?

Although, perhaps the final observation is best left to writer Charlie Warzel. In a recent article published in The Atlantic, he concludes, “Americans are divided not just by political beliefs but by whether they believe in a shared reality—or desire one at all.”