Mountain celebrity claims massive death toll in Helene covered up; Why is he wrong

Eustace Conway, a former reality TV star and founder of the 1,000-acre Turtle Island Preserve in Watauga County, has become one of the most prominent North Carolina voices supporting debunked claims of Tropical Storm Helene’s devastation, gaining them a good amount of attention and an audience. on social media beyond North Carolina.

Conspiracy theories and unsubstantiated rumors dominated parts of the internet in the wake of the storm, making local and state officials’ efforts to convey accurate and verified information to survivors and other North Carolina residents more difficult. One of the main topics of discussion is the death toll in Western North Carolina.

In a video released on October 19, Conway claimed that the official death toll from the storm was undercounted by thousands and accused the government and news media of lying about the storm’s true impact.

“We have piles and piles of bodies,” Conway said in the video.

“We have 18-wheeler refrigerated trucks full of bodies… Why is there such a difference between what I saw here and what you were told?”

In another video posted on his YouTube and Instagram pages on October 5, Conway alleged that officials directing response and recovery operations prevented volunteers and donations from helping hurricane victims.

“The people who are supposed to come here to help the Appalachian Mountains are actually literally killing people by preventing help from getting to them,” Conway said.

Together, these two videos have garnered over 600,000 views and over 4,500 comments on YouTube alone.

Many of his claims – that the true death toll is in the tens of thousands, that makeshift morgues are filling up quickly, that large numbers of bodies can be seen from the ground from the air, that the “government” is conspiring with news organizations. To cover up the true death toll, emergency management officials were threatening to arrest the volunteers; They were constantly berated by local, state and federal officials.

Carolina Public Press reporters who personally visited many of the areas in question saw no evidence to support any of these claims.

As of Friday, DHHS reported 101 storm-related deaths in North Carolina. This number includes people who died during rescue and cleanup efforts after the storm; This is one of the reasons why the total number has gradually increased over time.

The CPP reported on October 18 that there was no pile of unidentified bodies yet to be included in the death count, as some online had claimed. While a small number of storm-related deaths have occurred or been identified since then, they do not remotely resemble the claims from Conway.

The North Carolina Department of Public Safety — the agency that includes state emergency management — was aware of only seven North Carolina residents tracking the storm as of Thursday who were still unaware, communications director Justin Graney told CPP.

“The State Emergency Response Team was unable to obtain any evidence to support claims that there were many more deaths than the number recorded and publicly reported; “It is a testament to the heroic response of our first responders and emergency management officials in Western North Carolina,” Graney told CPP in an email statement.

“As we grieve with our North Carolina communities the loss of 101 people, it is important to note that many of our local partners have reported fatalities in their areas, and none of these reports confirm the claims made on many social media platforms.”

The Fire Department in Swannanoa, a small community east of Asheville and the center of many online rumors in the wake of Helene, used Facebook to ask people not to share unverified information. This October 19 post was written by Deputy Fire Chief Larry Pierson.

“We have seen false social media posts claiming their information has been ‘verified,’ with no source identifying who verified it, and no response when questions are asked,” the post said.

“From the first hour onwards, to the actual responders, to the boots on the ground, to those involved in the rescue and recovery of our people, no one is ‘keeping the numbers’. The exaggerated number of body bags ordered implies that there are many more body bags that are not being told to the public. Not true.

“There is an image of a ‘reefer’ (refrigerated trailer) at a funeral home, implying there are many and it is full. “Logic would tell us all that there was no electricity at the funeral home either, which was very unexpected for normal operations at such a facility.”

When asked for comment, Conway told CPP he would not retract his statements or delete the posts. He said he believed he was telling the truth based on the statements of people he claimed participated in search and rescue efforts after the storm.

“I’m working with eyewitness accounts who have seen hundreds and hundreds of bodies,” Conway said in a phone interview Friday. “So how can there be only 100 dead people when hundreds and hundreds of corpses add up to thousands?”

Other than these unsubstantiated claims from people Conway said she spoke to, she offered no photographs or other evidence to support her claims of mass hidden deaths related to the storm. In one video, he estimated the actual storm-related death toll in North Carolina at 20,000.

Impressive Conway

Conway is a famous figure in the mountains of North Carolina. The Turtle Island Preserve website describes him as a naturalist who has “lived in the forest for over 40 years” and says he is a graduate of Appalachian State University.

He was the subject of bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert’s 2002 book “The Last American Man” and was featured prominently in the History channel TV series “Mountain Men.” Conway last appeared on the series in the summer of 2023 and is no longer listed on the official casting webpage.

A representative for A+E Networks did not respond when asked if Conway was still under contract with the network or if there were plans for her to appear in future episodes of the series.

Conway founded Turtle Island Preserve, a conservation and educational center in Watauga County that hosts children’s camps, workshops and other outdoor programs. Conway no longer runs the conservancy, a nonprofit organization governed by a board of directors.

Although Conway was not an overtly political figure, his skepticism of local government institutions is well documented. In 2012, his camp on Turtle Island was nearly shut down after Watauga County inspectors found that many structures on the property violated health and safety codes. The issue ended in June 2013 when the state legislature passed a bill exempting “primitive” camps from these building codes.

In 2023, Conway endorsed perennial political candidate and conspiracy theorist Shiva Ayyadurai for president. Ayyadurai is an anti-vaccine activist and has spread various lies about COVID-19 and the 2020 Election on social media.