Old photos of destruction wrought by past disasters falsely linked to Hurricane Milton
- Published on October 23, 2024 at 05:39
- 5 min read
- By AFP Thailand
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"Florida devastated by Hurricane Milton," read the Burmese-language caption to four images shared on Facebook on October 12, 2024.
"The whole world is in peril," it added.
The images show elevated views of residential areas that have been flattened, leaving only scattered debris from destroyed homes.
The claim spread after Hurricane Milton slammed into Florida's Gulf coast on October 9, killing at least 16 people (archived link).
The monster storm left more than two million households and businesses without power, and caused an estimated $50 billion in damage.
Similar posts circulated elsewhere on Facebook here and here.
But the images do not show the destruction caused by Milton.
2023 Mississippi tornado
A reverse image search on Google of the first image led to a clip published in a report about a storm that levelled a town in central Mississippi published in The New York Times on March 25, 2023 (archived link).
The report is titled, "Southern Tornadoes Leave At Least 26 Dead".
Text in the clip's upper-left corner reads "Rolling Fork, Miss." and it is credited to photographer Rory Doyle (archived link).
Rolling Fork, home to fewer than 2,000 people, was hard hit by a tornado that swept through the southern US state of Mississippi on March 24, 2023 (archived link).
Below is the screenshot comparison of the falsely shared image (left) and the footage from The New York Times (right):
Part of the clip was also uploaded on X by The New York Times (archived link).
Hurricane Ian
A Google reverse image search found the second image was published on the Getty Images website on October 3, 2022 with the title, "Florida's Southern Gulf Coast Continues Clean Up Efforts In Wake Of Hurricane Ian" (archived link).
The image is credited to Win McNamee.
"In this aerial view, destruction left in the wake of Hurricane Ian is shown on October 02, 2022 in Fort Myers Beach, Florida. Fort Myers Beach sustained severe damage by the Category 4 hurricane which caused extensive damage to the southwest portion of Florida," read the photo's description.
Below is the screenshot comparison of the falsely shared photo (left) and the picture on Getty Images (right):
Fort Myers, a quiet town on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, became the epicentre of destruction as Hurricane Ian slammed into Florida as a powerful Category 4 storm in late September 2022 (archived link).
The third photo was also published on Getty Images on September 29, 2022 and was credited to Joe Raedle (archived link).
Its caption said it shows an aerial view of buildings that were damaged as Hurricane Ian passed through Fort Myers Beach in Florida.
Below is the screenshot comparison of the falsely shared photo (left) and the Getty Images photo (right):
Hurricane Michael
Another reverse image search on Google found the fourth picture in Reuters photo archives (archived link).
Its caption read: "An American flag flies amongst rubble left in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Florida, U.S. October 11, 2018."
The photo was credited to Jonathan Bachman.
Below is the screenshot comparison of the falsely shared photo (left) and the Reuters photo (right):
Hurricane Michael, a Category 5 storm, made landfall in Florida on October 10, 2018, killing at least 74 people and causing an estimated $25 billion in damages (archived link).
AFP has debunked similar posts that misrepresented old storm footage as showing the impact of Hurricane Milton here and here.
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