Months-old footage shows flooding in Florida, not Thailand after heavy rain

Published on June 4, 2025 at 05:54
2 min read
By AFP Thailand

Parts of Thailand's capital experienced minor flooding following heavy rains at the start of the monsoon season, but a video shared online does not show parts of Bangkok under water as claimed in Burmese-language posts. The clip has in fact circulated since Hurricane Milton struck Florida in October 2024, and elements of the footage correspond to Fort Myers Beach on the US state's west coast.

"Flooding around (Victory Monument) in Thailand at 3:15pm today. Myanmar citizens beware," reads the Burmese-language caption of a Facebook video shared on May 27, 2025.

Superimposed Burmese-language text on the video -- which shows partially submerged houses and buildings in an area inundated with water -- reads, "Flooding in Thailand. Those who are close to the sea, please be careful".

Screenshot of the false Facebook post, captured on June 3, 2025

The video circulated online days after Thai media reported that a combination of heavy rain and slow water drainage had flooded parts of Bangkok (archived here and here).

The footage was also shared in similar Burmese posts on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

But the clip is old and was not filmed in Bangkok.

A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to an identical clip published on Instagram on October 9, 2024 (archived link).

Its caption reads: "Fort Myers Beach, halfway down Estero island @ 5:30pm on Oct 9. Milton was about double the flooding from Helene for FMB."

Category 3 storm Hurricane Milton made landfall on Florida's Gulf Coast on October 9, 2024, pounding communities still reeling from the effects of Hurricane Helene two weeks earlier.

At least 16 people died as Milton sent tornadoes spinning across Florida and left millions of buildings without power (archived link).

Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and the Instagram video from October 2024 (right)

The video matches Google Street View imagery of Fort Myers Beach (archived link).

Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (top) and Google Street View imagery from Fort Myers Beach (bottom), with corresponding buildings highlighted by AFP

AFP has previously debunked other misinformation related to flooding in Thailand here.

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