Fact Check: U.S. Marines Did NOT Block FEMA From Tornado Relief In Omaha

Fact Check

  • by: Kaiyah Clarke
Fact Check: U.S. Marines Did NOT Block FEMA From Tornado Relief In Omaha Pentagon: Nope

Did U.S. Marines forcibly block the Federal Emergency Management Agency from providing tornado relief in Omaha, Nebraska, in April 2024? No, that's not true: A Pentagon duty officer told Lead Stories that this claim is false. It originally showed up in an article on a website that regularly publishes fabricated content.

The claim appeared in an article published by Real Raw News on April 28, 2024, titled "Marines Ambush FEMA Brigands in Storm-Stricken Nebraska" (archived here). It began:

A White Hat blockade prevented an armed FEMA convoy from entering the tornado-ravaged suburb of Elkhorn, Nebraska, Saturday morning after a violent twister outbreak razed hundreds of homes and businesses and left citizens stunned and clamoring for necessities such as food, water, shelter, and electricity.

Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:

Marines FEMA Nebraska Image.png

(Source: RealRawNews.com screenshot taken on Wed May 1 15:55:58 2024 UTC)

A Pentagon duty officer responded via email on May 1, 2024, to Lead Stories' question about the claim, writing:

The claim is false.

Lead Stories also contacted the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for a statement regarding the claim. A FEMA spokesperson responded via a May 1, 2024, email, writing:

This rumor is absolutely false.

Lead Stories also reached out to the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) regarding the claim and will update this story if a response is received.

Lead Stories did a search using keywords on Google News, visible here (archived here), which found no credible documents or reporting to corroborate the claim.

Additional Lead Stories fact checks that mention the U.S. Marines Corps and FEMA can be found here.

Real Raw News

Real Raw News has a long history of publishing false claims in mock news stories, many of them about convictions and executions of various public figures at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. For example, the site reported former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was hanged (she wasn't); former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta was executed (he wasn't); and "the military" convicted former Attorney General William Barr on charges of treason (it didn't).

The website for Real Raw News includes a disclaimer that declares the site does not stand by the contents of the stories, calling them entertainment. Specifically, it says:

Information on this website is for informational and educational and entertainment purposes. ... We have included this disclaimer for our protection, on the advice on legal counsel.

Real Raw snip.jpg

(Source: RealRawNews.com screenshot taken Tue Aug 3 16:39:48 UTC 2021)

Lead Stories has covered claims published by Real Raw News in the past. Previous Lead Stories debunks of Real Raw News items are collected here.

Want to inform others about the accuracy of this story?

See who is sharing it (it might even be your friends...) and leave the link in the comments.:


  Kaiyah Clarke

Kaiyah Clarke is a fact-checker at Lead Stories. She is a graduate of Florida A&M University with a B.S. in Broadcast Journalism and is currently pursuing an M.S. in Journalism. When she is not fact-checking or researching counter-narratives in society, she is often found reading a book on the New York Times Bestseller List.

Read more about or contact Kaiyah Clarke

About Us

International Fact-Checking Organization EFCSN Meta Third-Party Fact Checker

Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, misleading, deceptive or inaccurate stories, videos or images going viral on the internet.
Spotted something? Let us know!.

Lead Stories is a:


WhatsApp Tipline

Have a tip or a question? Chat with our friendly robots on WhatsApp!

Add our number +1 (404) 655-4223, follow this link or scan the image below with your phone:

@leadstories

Subscribe to our newsletter

* indicates required

Please select all the ways you would like to hear from Lead Stories LLC:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices here.

Most Read

Most Recent

Share your opinion