AI-generated image falsely linked to destruction in Jamaica after Hurricane Melissa
- Published on November 12, 2025 at 13:41
- 3 min read
- By AFP Mexico, AFP South Africa
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Hurricane Melissa, the most powerful Atlantic storm in nearly a century, made landfall in Jamaica on October 28, 2025. Since then, social media users have circulated an image thousands of times, claiming it shows the storm’s aftermath. However, the claim is false; the image was created using artificial intelligence.
“This is sad,” reads a Facebook post published on October 29, 2025, with an image that appears to show flooded streets, destroyed buildings and bent palm trees.
Text overlaid on the image reads: “Streets turn into rivers as Hurricane Melissa sweeps through Jamaica — residents scramble to safety.”
Similar posts were shared thousands of times in Spanish and French, which were debunked by AFP Fact Check here and here. These posts also claimed that the image showed Black River Hospital in Jamaica’s Saint Elizabeth parish.
Hurricane Melissa became the most intense storm to make landfall in 90 years when it barrelled into Jamaica on October 28, 2025, as a Category 5 hurricane packing winds of 185 miles (300 kilometres) per hour (archived here).
The death toll on the island stands at 32, out of at least 76 across the wider Caribbean — a relatively low number due to disaster planning, including mass evacuations and prepositioning aid, the Red Cross said on November 5, 2025 (archived here).
However, the widely shared image does not show Jamaica or the Black River Hospital.
AI-generated image
A reverse image search returned a Facebook post published on October 28, 2025, with the same image.
“Real Disasters. AI Visuals,” reads the user’s profile, and although the original post was later deleted, the account features other AI-generated content related to Hurricane Melissa and other disasters.
Analysis using the Hive Moderation tool indicated a 99.9 percent likelihood that the image was created with AI.
A Google Earth search for Black River Hospital confirmed that it is not the same building seen in the viral image, as evidenced by multiple inconsistencies: the roof of the actual building is red, not black, and some windows and structures do not match.
A Google search for “Black River Hospital in Jamaica destroyed by Hurricane Melissa” led to a statement on October 28, 2025, reporting that the hospital’s administrative block had sustained significant damage and power outages in some areas had led to the suspension of operations (archived here).
A Facebook post published on October 29, 2025, by Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who visited Saint Elizabeth, includes an aerial video of the town (archived here).
Based on satellite images, the UN Development Program estimates the hurricane left more than 4.8 million tons of debris, enough to fill almost half a million standard trucks (archived here).
Initial estimates suggest the cost of storm damage is about 30 percent of Jamaica's GDP, with the figure expected to rise.
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