Amid Cyclone Fengal’s ongoing affect, Sri Lanka and components of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are dealing with tough seas and robust winds. A video (here, here and here) has gone viral on social media, displaying heavy rainwater flooding on roads and disrupting autos, with claims that it’s from Marina Seaside Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Let’s discover the reality behind this video. (The archived submit will be discovered here.)
Declare: The viral video exhibits flooded roads and autos struggling to navigate close to Marina Seaside, Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
Reality: Chennai confronted flooding as a result of Cyclone Fengal, which began on 25 November 2024. However the viral video, which exhibits heavy rainfall and flooding, is definitely from 2 September 2024, when Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, skilled heavy rainfall. The viral video has no relation to the latest floods in Chennai, making the declare deceptive.
To confirm the declare, we carried out a reverse picture search on Google, which led us to a video posted on Fb on 3 September 2024. The caption of the submit reads, “Heavy rain in Jeddah metropolis“.
One other outcome factors to the identical video uploaded on YouTube by the account yahyafarsi1430, with a caption stating, “Heavy rainfall in Jeddah metropolis on September 2.” This additional confirms that the video depicts scenes from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Additional analysis utilizing key phrases from the YouTube video led us to a number of studies (here, here, here and here) detailing the flooding in Jeddah. On 2 September 2024, Jeddah skilled heavy rainfall resulting in flash floods that brought on vital disruptions. Roads had been submerged, colleges had been closed, and authorities issued warnings for residents to keep away from valleys and waterways. At the least 5 individuals misplaced their lives throughout these floods, highlighting the severity of the scenario.
In the meantime, Cyclone Fengal originated within the Bay of Bengal on 25 November 2024 and intensified because it moved in direction of the Indian shoreline. It made landfall on 25 November 2024, between Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, bringing heavy rainfall, robust winds, and extreme flooding. Chennai confronted vital disruptions, together with waterlogging and highway closures, with the cyclone claiming a minimum of 19 lives, together with 5 deaths in Chennai (here, here and here). Nonetheless, the viral video circulating on social media has no reference to this incident.
To sum up, visuals of flooded roads from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, had been shared as being from Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
(This story was initially revealed by Factly, and republished by EDNBOX as a part of the Shakti Collective)