Photo shows people fleeing Hurricane Rita in 2005, not Floridians escaping Milton

As Hurricane Milton barrelled towards Florida in October, a photo of a congested motorway made the rounds in X posts that falsely claimed it showed people fleeing the southeastern US state. The photo, however, has circulated online since September 2005 and shows residents of Houston, Texas scrambling to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Rita.

"Scenes of millions of Americans fleeing the US state of Florida as the most powerful hurricane in history 'Hurricane Milton' approaches," read an Urdu-language X post from October 9.

It showed a picture of an aerial view of a motorway jampacked with cars and trucks.

Image
Screenshot of the false X post, captured on October 22, 2024

The image circulated on X, including here and here, ahead of Hurricane Milton's landfall on the Gulf coast of Florida on October 9 (archived link).

President Joe Biden had warned the storm could be the worst to hit the state in over a century as he urged residents in its path to evacuate (archived link).

At least 16 people were killed and Milton caused an estimated $50 billion in damage -- although the storm was milder than first feared.

But the photo is nearly two decades old. AFP previously debunked similar posts in Arabic that misrepresented the same photo.

Hurricane Rita

A reverse image search found the photo published on the US National Weather Service's website in an article about "one of the largest civilian evacuations in US history", when residents fled Houston, Texas ahead of Hurricane Rita in September 2005  (archived link).

"Traffic was at a standstill, and record heat compounded the problem by causing cars to overheat and stall on already congested roadways," the article said.

"More people were killed during the evacuation of Hurricane Rita than directly due to the storm itself."

Below is a screenshot comparison between the falsely shared image (left) and the image on the US National Weather Service's website (right):

Image
Below is a screenshot comparison between the falsely shared image (left) and the image on the US National Weather Service's website (right):

The photo was also shared on a verified National Weather Service X account on September 22, 2016 (archived link).

Rita made landfall on the Texas-Louisiana border on September 24, 2005 and packed winds of 185 kilometres per hour (115 mph) (archived link).

Ten people were killed in Texas and Mississippi, and another 24 people died during the evacuation of more than three million people from their homes (archived link).

AFP confirmed the photo was taken on the Interstate 45 motorway outside Houston by comparing the picture to Google Maps imagery from that location (archived link).

Image
Screenshot comparison between the photo circulating online (left) and Google Maps imagery of the I-45 (right), with similarities highlighted by AFP

AFP has debunked various photo falsely presented as Hurricane Milton here

Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.

Contact us