Video shows storm surge in the Philippines, not 'tsunami' in Sri Lanka

Published on November 20, 2025 at 09:57
2 min read
By Harshana SILVA, AFP Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka did not experience earthquakes or any subsequent tsunami in early November, contrary to social media posts making the false claim and sharing a video of storm surges in the Philippines. The footage was filmed in the northern Philippine town of Dinapigue on November 9, before the powerful Typhoon Fung-Wong struck the Southeast Asian country.

"Tsunami in Galle. Waves continue to crash onto the shore, and the waves keep intensifying," reads a Sinhala-language Facebook post shared on November 11, 2025.

The post includes a video of huge waves crashing into a shoreline and flooding some homes.

Screenshot of the false post taken on November 12, with a red X marked by AFP

The clip appeared in similar posts on Facebook, where it misled users who believed a tsunami had struck Sri Lanka.

"Oh, my heart is burning. My children went to my mother's place. I am here", reads one comment.

"I am planning to go to Galle", another wrote.

Sri Lanka was one of 14 countries struck by tsunamis that swept across the Indian Ocean after a magnitude-9.0 earthquake off Sumatra on December 26, 2004, with survivors and relatives still coming together to mourn the 220,000 people who died in one of the world's worst natural disasters two decades later (archived link).

But Sri Lanka reported no earthquakes nor any subsequent tsunamis in early November 2025 and the circulating footage is from the Philippines.

"No tsunami situation was reported in Galle or other parts of the country, recently or within this year," Merril Mendis, director of the forecasting division at the Department of Meteorology, told AFP on November 18, 2025.

A combination of reverse image search and keyword searches found the same video shared on the verified Facebook page of the Philippine News Agency on November 9, 2025 (archived link)

"Uwan is coming. Strong waves smash into the coastline of Dinapigue, Isabela, on Sunday (Nov. 9, 2025), as Super Typhoon Uwan (Fung-wong) approaches the landmass of Luzon," the caption reads.

Fung-wong, locally named Uwan, had reached super typhoon strength when it slammed into the Philippines on November 9, flooding hundreds of villages and killing at least 27 people (archived link).

It was the second major storm in days, coming on the heels of Typhoon Kalmaegi which left 232 people dead.

Further keyword searches found the original video posted on Facebook on November 9 (archived link).

Screenshot comparison of the clip shared in false posts (L) and the video uploaded originally on Facebook

The houses seen in the video correspond to Google Maps Street View imagery of a coastal town in Dinapigue municipality in the northern Philippines (archived here and here).

AFP has repeatedly debunked misinformation surrounding tsunamis.

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