Old clips of inundated New York subway misleadingly linked to 2023 floods

This article is more than one year old.
Published on October 9, 2023 at 11:20
3 min read
By Tommy WANG, AFP Hong Kong

A video of heavy flooding in the New York City subway has been viewed tens of thousands of times in misleading Chinese social media posts about heavy rains that submerged America's financial capital in September 2023. While floods disrupted New York City's subway system during the recent downpour, the video contains clips that have previously circulated in reports about the impact of Hurricane Ida in September 2021.

A video consisting of two clips -- one showing a torrent of water gushing on to a subway station platform and another showing a shower over a train -- was shared on Weibo on September 30, 2023.

"The governor declared a state of emergency after torrential rains and flooding hit New York. #New York is paralysed!" the simplified Chinese caption reads in part.

The video has been viewed more than 28,000 times.

A screenshot of the false post on Weibo, taken on October 6, 2023

The post circulated one day after heavy rains hit the northeastern United States and left parts of New York under water, partially paralysing subways and airports, AFP reported.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared an official state of emergency for the city of 8.5 million and its densely-populated suburbs.

The video has also been misleadingly linked to the recent downpour in posts on X, formerly Twitter, as well as on TikTok and its Chinese equivalent Douyin.

Hurricane Ida

However, Google reverse image and keyword searches using keyframes of the first clip found the corresponding footage posted on X by an account called "Subway Creatures" on September 2, 2021 (archived link).

The account often posts videos and images from the New York City subway since at least August 2011.

The clip is captioned: "Wild scene in the subway tonight".

Below is a screenshot comparison of the clip shared in the misleading posts (left) and the video uploaded on X in 2021 (right):

Clip shared in the misleading posts (left) and clip shared in 2021 (right)

The same video along with similar images was shared by multiple US news organisations -- including CBS News, ABC and NBC -- in reports about Hurricane Ida wreaking havoc in New York (archived links here, here and here).

Ida struck the US Gulf Coast as a Category 4 hurricane, bringing major flooding and knocking out power to large parts of the heavily populated region.

The final blast of the storm killed at least 47 people in the US Northeast as it turned streets into raging rivers, inundated basements and shut down the New York subway when it struck on September 1, 2021, AFP reported.

The second clip of water raining down on to a train car was also shared in the same X thread by Subway Creatures (archived link).

Further searches found it was uploaded by British video licensing website Newsflare, which indicated the video was taken on September 2, 2021 (archived link).

"A subway train in New York is covered in flood water from Hurricane Ida and prevents riders from boarding the train," the video caption reads.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the clip shared in the misleading posts (left) and the video uploaded on Newsflare (right):

Clip shared in the misleading posts (left) and video uploaded on Newsflare (right)

AFP has debunked misinformation that have swirled around the September 2023 New York floods here and here.

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Old clips of inundated New York subway misleadingly linked to 2023 floods

Hurricane Ida

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