Mistaken images of storm posed as Hurricane Milton in Florida – Australian Associated Press

AAP FACTCHECK – A viral video purports to show the devastating impact of Hurricane Milton in Florida, including destroyed homes, fallen trees and a giant inflatable duck tossed onto a street.

This is false. The images have nothing to do with Hurricane Milton. Many clips have already been posted online and attributed to storms in other states or countries.

The video was posted to Facebook on October 9 (Florida Eastern Daylight Time), the same day the hurricane made landfall in the state. At the time of writing, the images had racked up nearly 1.5 million views.

The same video also appeared on other social networks, including TikTok, Instagram, X and YouTube.

It includes 18 clips of what it claims is the damage caused by the recent hurricane. The superimposed text reads: “Hurricane Milton just made landfall (sic) in Florida with a wind speed of 185 mph at Category 5.”

The U.S. National Weather Service says hurricanes that make landfall at category five can cause “catastrophic damage” to homes, trees and utility poles.

Hurricane Milton was classified as a category five hurricane offshore, but weakened to category three when it struck Florida on October 9.

CBS News reports that at least 24 people were killed in the storm that resulted in a repair bill that experts say could exceed $50 billion.

However, the damage visible in the Facebook video was not caused by Hurricane Milton.

The first scene of the video is a rock being blown by the wind. AAP Fact Check Found footage of the rock was posted to YouTube on October 4, 2024 and attributed to storms in Acapulco, Mexico (35 seconds).

Other clips from the video are also reused from footage shot before Hurricane Milton hit Florida.

One section (11 seconds) shows a giant inflatable bear tumbling down a street. The bear has the word “FORUM” in large letters on its back.

Media reports of the incident show that the bear was carried away in front of the Plaza Forum shopping center in Cuernavaca, Mexico on May 19, 2024.

A clip of debris being blown into the air outside a restaurant (16 seconds) was filmed during a May 2022 tornado in Gaylord, Michigan.

The images were already published on Facebook on May 21, 2022.

AAP Fact Check verified the location where the clip was filmed as Main Street, Gaylord, as seen on Google Street View.

Footage of a roof being torn off a gas station forecourt (21 seconds) was filmed in Mountain View, Missouri, in May 2024, according to a June 5, 2024 Facebook post by content agency Storyful.

A clip of a tree toppled by the wind (29 seconds) was previously posted on TikTok in July 2024 with a caption explaining that it was filmed in the Mexican city of Guadalajara.

A clip of a flooded stairwell (36 seconds) was previously posted on TikTok in June 2024, where it reportedly shows flooding in the German town of Rudersberg.

The collapse of a wooden house frame (41 seconds) seen in the video can be attributed to an incident in Houston, Texas, reported by Fox Weather on May 21, 2024.

Footage of a large inflatable duck being thrown onto a highway (48 seconds), which the video says is in Florida, on October 9, was actually filmed in the town of Frankenmuth, Michigan, in May 2024 .

Towards the end of the video, we see a blue portaloo being pushed by the wind (1 minute). The same footage was posted to TikTok in August 2024, with the location labeled as Fort Myers, Florida.

While AAP Fact Check was unable to verify the origin of the 18 clips used in the video in question, most of the footage is clearly not associated with Hurricane Milton.

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