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Waves roll in from the Gulf of Mexico toward lots where only empty foundations and debris remain after homes were swept away in Hurricane Milton, on Manasota Key in Englewood, Fla. on Oct. 13, 2024. (AP)
This video montage doesn’t show footage from Hurricane Milton
If Your Time is short
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The clips do not show footage of Hurricane Milton.
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Reverse-image searches revealed most of the video clips were taken from April 2022 to September 2024, before Milton made landfall Oct. 9. They show natural disasters in Iowa, Kansas, Brazil and Vietnam.
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One clip shows flooding caused by Hurricane Helene in September.
Hurricane Milton killed at least 17 people and left nearly 2 million without power in Florida. The storm also generated extensive news coverage, but some videos circulating on social media claiming to show Milton are suspect.
"Hurricane Milton is Here," text over a Oct. 9 Instagram video purporting to show footage from the storm read.
This post 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.)
The first clip shows pieces of an apartment roof tearing off and flying into the air. But the footage was not taken during Hurricane Milton, which hit western Florida on Oct. 9. The video shows wreckage caused by a July 15 tornado in Des Moines, Iowa.
The second clip also doesn’t show Hurricane Milton. It depicts an April 2022 tornado captured on security cameras in Andover, Kansas. We found the third and fourth clips posted to TikTok on Nov. 30, 2023, and Aug. 19, 2023, respectively, more than a year before Hurricane Milton touched down in Florida.
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The fifth clip comes from a montage posted Oct. 8 on X and TikTok, a day before Hurricane Milton made landfall. The TikTok account that first posted the video has taken it down.
Screenshot from Instagram
A reverse-image search showed us that the sixth clip shows Hurricane Helene on Sept. 26, and the seventh clip is from a Sept. 7 X post that says it shows shipping containers toppling in Vietnam because of winds from Typhoon Yagi, which hit southern China and southeast Asia in early September.
The next clip shows the roof of a house flying off in São Paulo, Brazil, during heavy rains in October 2023. And the final clip was posted to TikTok on April 17, months before Hurricane Milton appeared.
We rate the claim that this Instagram video shows footage of Hurricane Milton in Florida False.
Our Sources
Instagram post (archived), Oct. 9, 2024
CBS News, Maps show track of Hurricane Milton as it makes landfall in Florida, Oct. 9, 2024
Des Moines Register, A tornado ripped the roof of a Des Moines apartment. A resident captured it on video., July 16, 2024
YouTube, Andover Tornado, April 29, 2022, City Hall East Camera, May 5, 2022
TikTok post, Nov. 30, 2023
TikTok post, Aug. 19, 2023
Instagram post, Sept. 26, 2024
X post, Sept. 7, 2024
Reuters, Yagi kills four in Vietnam after casualties in China, Philippines, Sept. 7, 2024
YouTube, Telhado de casa voa após fortes ventos e quase atinge pessoa, Oct. 16, 2023
SCC 10, The roof of a house flies after a strong wind and almost hits a man; see images, Oct. 16, 2023
TikTok post, April 17, 2024
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This video montage doesn’t show footage from Hurricane Milton
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