Video compilation misrepresents old clips as 2026 Hawaii floods
- Published on March 24, 2026 at 16:53
- 3 min read
- By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA
A video compilation spreading across platforms purports to show severe floodwaters washing through the Hawaiian island of Oahu in March 2026. But only one of the five visuals in the mashup is current; the other four clips come from different storms that tore through the US island state in previous years.
"WHY ARE WE NOT HEARING ABOUT THIS??" says a March 22, 2026 post on X. "HAWAII IS UNDER WATER."
The post shares a five-sequence video compilation originally posted on TikTok, which also circulated on YouTube.
The compilation spread as torrential rains brought massive floods that battered Oahu, with officials on March 20 ordering residents living near the aging Wahiawa Dam to evacuate. The island, the state's third largest, is home to the capital city of Honolulu.
The fifth and final clip in the mashup accurately reflects the situation on the ground. News organizations dedicated to weather coverage published the footage March 20, crediting it to a Facebook user who posted that it showed his view "stranded" from his front porch in Haleiwa on Oahu's north shore (archived here and here).
The other four shots are misrepresented, however.
An AFP investigation using reverse image and keyword searches revealed the clips were captured during prior storms that hit Hawaii in 2023 and 2025.
November 2023
The first visual included in the mashup dates to November 2023, when it was posted to Facebook with a caption saying it showed a "flash flood in Nahiku," a community on Maui, another of Hawaii's islands (archived here). Local news outlet Hawaii News Now rebroadcast the footage (archived here).
January 2025
The second sequence, of a car driving through a flooded street, was captured January 30, 2025 in Honolulu, according to captions attached to the footage on the video-licensing services Spectee and Newsflare (archived here and here).
Thunderstorms and fierce winds at the time placed most of the islands on flood alert.
The fourth clip, which captures the view from a parking garage of pouring rain slowing traffic on a main road, comes from the same storm. A Facebook user posted it January 30, 2025, saying it showed "strong wind and heavy rain here in Honolulu, Hawaii" (archived here).
The third clip also predates the March 2026 extreme weather, though AFP could not verify its origin.
The image was featured in a compilation published January 31, 2025 on X and Reddit, labeled as showing the same January 2025 storm (archived here and here).
AFP has debunked other misinformation about weather and climate here.
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