Viral video compilation tries to pass off old footage as Hurricane Helene clips

A viral compilation of stormy video clips featuring a large inflatable duck taking flight has been spreading online as if the footage was filmed during Hurricane Helene, a Category 4 storm that hit Florida’s western Gulf coast Sept. 26.

But these video clips, shared Sept. 25 on Instagram, were not taken during Hurricane Helene — they all predate the storm.

(Screenshot of Instagram post) 

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 post was removed from Instagram before this story was published.

We tracked the origins of the 10 separate clips included in the compilation: 

• The first clip featuring a white building and red pickup truck was taken in Nash County, North Carolina, during a July 2023 hurricane, according to WTVD-TV. 

• The second clip was taken in Urbandale, Iowa, during a July 2024 tornado, according to local news reports. 

  Featured Fact-check

  

  Threads posts

  stated on October 26, 2024 in a Threads post

  Four Florida counties had “zero results” Oct. 26, and “something underhanded might be happening.”

  

• The third clip of a flying trampoline in a backyard was taken in July 2021 in Rock Hill, South Carolina, according to a video posted on The Weather Channel website.

• And the giant inflatable duck, whose name is Thrifty, blew across a road in Birch Run, Michigan, earlier this year during a heavy windstorm. Before it took flight, the duck belonged to a local antique shop owner who said it cost $3,000. 

For the remaining clips, PolitiFact couldn’t verify exactly when and where they were taken, but in all instances we found versions of the clips that were circulating online before Helene made landfall.

Don’t let your timeline get flooded with misinformation; these storm clips are not from Hurricane Helene. We rate this claim False.

PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.