"When Chad Comey's five-story condo building burned down in the Palisades Fire early last year, all that was left was the parking garage, a brick and stucco wall, and a few charred trees. Comey's street is now full of empty lots stretching up into the green hills. Comey is a musician and caretaker for his two disabled parents. In the past year, they've moved five times, not wanting to overstay their welcome with friends and family, while looking for a wheelchair-accessible apartment to rent."
""I think we have a right to be angry," Comey says. "I am housed, but I am homeless." He says some people on social media try to minimize the pain of fire survivors. "People who are trying to reduce our anger do not understand what it feels like to be homeless," he says. Comey says some social media posts about the fire play to anger and rage, and don't always contain accurate information."
""In today's day and age on social media, one kernel of truth can be spun off into reels and rage bait," he says. "There's a lot of that." In the aftermath of the Los Angeles fires, misinformation spread almost as fast as the flames. Some of these false narratives on social media, especially about water, have had a direct impact on California policy, legal and water experts tell NPR."
Chad Comey's five-story condo building burned down in the Palisades Fire, leaving only a parking garage, a brick and stucco wall, and charred trees. His street now contains empty lots stretching into the hills. Comey, a musician and caretaker for two disabled parents, and his family moved five times seeking a wheelchair-accessible rental. False narratives about the fires spread rapidly on social media, especially claims about water, and influenced California policy and legal debates according to experts. Thirty-one people died and an area roughly three times the size of Manhattan burned. Misinformation can distract from effective disaster response.
Read at www.npr.org
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