A strange piece of news has been doing the rounds since the past couple of days that claims that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will conduct a nuclear detonation "drill" on January 6, 2022 or Wednesday. The claims spread like wildfire the moment it made it to the social media but to in reality nothing of that sort is happening nor has the FEMA announced anything close to conduct a nuclear detonation drill.
Yes, the FEMA does have a major event planned for January 6 but that is a half-hour-long webinar for emergency response planners, mass care providers and emergency responders. It will not be a nuclear drill but just a simple Zoom meeting. The claim thus doing the rounds on social media is absolutely false.
The Origin
The claim went viral after FEMA announced that it will hold a webnair. But on January 4 claims started doing the rounds that FEMA has announced that it will conduct a nuclear detonation drill. The false claim was published on a few websites. One article that appeared on halturnerradioshow.com on January 4, 2022 was titled "FEMA To Conduct 'Nuclear Detonation Drill' January 6" which opened.
This article particularly went viral on social media with many falling into the trap. The article opened: "The Federal Emergency Management Agency has announced it will conduct a nuclear detonation "drill" on January 6 from 3:00-3:30 PM eastern time. Strangely, in the past, federal "drills" turned out to be the real thing.
The announcement was accompanied by an image and a direct link to it appears on their official web site. The website looks authentic and people fell prey to it as they only saw the title and thumbnail. However, no nuclear detonation drill has been scheduled for January 6 and the claim is completely false.
FEMA Clears the Air
That the claim is bogus and is nothing but misinformation becomes even clearer after FEMA itself debunked it. FEAM had actually announced a half-hour-long webinar for emergency response planners, mass care providers and emergency responders on the topic of planning guidance for response to a nuclear detonation on January 6. It was not a nuclear detonation drill but a simple Zoom meeting.
The event was described on FEMA's official website as, "The event is intended for an audience of emergency response planners and public agencies that provide services that may be needed in an emergency."
However, even the webnair got cancelled due to inclement weather in the Washington, D.C., area and FEMA announced that as well. Later, FEMA clarified to Lead Stories debunking the claims in an email, which read: "Due to inclement weather in the Washington D.C. area, we are postponing the webinar on Planning Guidance for Response to a Nuclear Detonation. We will release updated information once it becomes available. The webinar is intended for our emergency management partners for educational purposes only."
There is thus no doubt that the claim that FEMA announced a nuclear detonation drill on January 6 is completely false and baseless and is nothing but fake news.
