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Maria Briceño
By Maria Briceño November 8, 2024

No, this video doesn’t show floods in Valencia, Spain. It’s from other disasters in Europe

If Your Time is short

  • These videos are not from the Oct. 29 floods in Valencia, Spain.

  • The clips are from flooding disasters that happened September 2024 in Central Europe.

See the sources for this fact-check

Unprecedented flash floods caused by heavy downpours Oct. 29 in eastern Spain left at least 150 people dead after they swept away cars, disrupted trains, deluged highways and left many people trapped in vehicles, homes and businesses. 

Although images of the deadly disaster have been widely reported, some social media users have been sharing footage from other natural disasters and claiming they happened in Valencia, Spain. 

An Oct. 31 Facebook post shows images of water currents flooding buildings and streets and sweeping away cars and debris. The text overlaying the post says, "Valencia floods today. Pray for Spain." 

The video was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

These clips are not from the flooding in Valencia; they predate the disaster. 

 
(Screenshot from Facebook post)

PolitiFact did a reverse-image search of the first clip and found that this video shows flooding Sept. 15 in a rural town in the northern Czech Republic, not in Spain. According to Storyful News & Weather, a social media newswire, Tomas Simunek, a cinematographer and photographer, first shared the clip on TikTok.

The Czech Republic was one of the countries affected by a storm that killed two dozen people across central Europe in September, according to The Guardian.

 
(Screenshot from Facebook post)
 
The second clip that shows a stream of water destroying a yellow building was posted Sept. 26 on YouTube with the caption, "Stronie Śląskie - powódź 2024." We put it in Google Translate, which translated the text from Polish to English as "Stronie Śląskie - flood 2024." 

On Sept. 21, Stronie Slaskie, a town in southwestern Poland, was one of the areas most affected by massive floods. The floods, considered Central Europe’s worst in more than two decades, killed at least 24 people, according to Reuters. 

 
(Screenshot from Facebook post)
 
This third clip is of flooding Sept.15 in Krnov, Czech Republic, according to TikTok and Facebook posts. We also found a GoFundMe created Sept. 24, asking for help to rebuild Krnov after the disaster; it shows the same picture of a flooded car in the Facebook video. 
 
 
(Screenshot from Facebook post)
 
The last clip also isn’t from Spain. An Albanian news site posted the same clip Sept. 26 with a caption that we translated from Polish to English and said, "Flood in Lądek-Zdrój, Landek, Bad Landeck, Klodzko, Lower Silesian, Polska, Poland 15.09.2024." The image also has a text saying the clip is from Lądek-Zdrój, Poland. 

Because these clips are not from Valencia but from other disasters in Europe that predated the Spanish flooding, we rate the Facebook post False. 

Read About Our Process

The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter

Our Sources

The Guardian, ‘We’re getting rid of everything’: floods destroy homes and lives in Czech Republic, Sept. 24, 2024

Facebook post, Sept. 26, 2024

TikTok post, Sept. 16, 2024

GoFundMe, Rebuilding Hope for Brantice Families Together, Sept. 24, 2024 

Reuters, Residents of Polish town hit by flood hope to make homes liveable by winter, Sept. 22, 2024

Instagram post, Sept. 26, 2024

Google Translate, accessed Nov. 8, 2024

YouTube, ​​Stronie Śląskie - powódź 2024, Sept. 26, 2024

TikTok post, Sept. 16, 2024

Storyful News & Weather, Storm Brings Heavy Flooding to Northern Town in Czech Republic, Sept. 20, 2024

Facebook reels, Oct. 31, 2024

The Associated Press, What to know about the unprecedented floods that killed more than 200 in Spain, Nov. 7, 2024

NBC News, Flash flooding leaves at least 51 dead in Spain, Oct. 30, 2024

CNN World, Severe flash flooding hits Spain, Oct. 30, 2024

Google Translate, Nov. 8, 2024

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