Hurricane

Does this video show images of flooding in Berlin "right now"? No, that's not true: Lead Stories was able to identify most of these scenes and none show flooding in Berlin. While several clips showing flooding from the summer of 2023, much of the footage is from the 2021 European flash floods in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany as…

Does this video show "Tornado Daniel" hitting Benghazi, Libya? No, that's not true: This video is a combination of a Floridian storm setting with visual effects added. The buildings and fallen tree are from a tornado tracker's YouTube channel where they followed Hurricane Matthew in Florida in October 2016. The cone tornado shape and lightning in the background are the…

Did President Joe Biden announce in September 2023 that his administration intends to "increase the number and intensity of the extreme weather events"? No, that's not true: A social media video used incomplete footage of a speech to imply that Biden intends to use weather wizardry to bolster fears about climate change. In remarks on September 2, 2023, Biden discussed…

Did the timing of President Joe Biden appointing a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) director before the Maui fires and subsequently saying that director was already in Hawaii when the fires broke out confirm Biden knew the wildfires would occur? No, that's not true: Biden appointed Robert J. Fenton Jr., a regional administrator for FEMA, as chief federal response coordinator…

Does a video accurately display Hurricane Idalia's landfall on a beach where many people are present in Clearwater, Florida? No, that's not true: This video clip shows a brief waterspout that occurred in June 2023 -- not a hurricane that made landfall in North Florida and caused significant damage in August 2023. The claim appeared in a reel (archived here)…

Was a state of emergency declared due to an Ebola outbreak at Burning Man in Black Rock City, Nevada? No, that's not true: There were no reports of known or suspected Ebola cases to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the agency confirmed to Lead Stories on September 5, 2023. Burning Man representatives confirmed to Lead Stories that…

Is this a video of the Vermont Beverly metro station in Los Angeles flooding due to the August 20, 2023, "hurriquake"? No, that's not true: This video is of a tram tour/amusement park ride at Universal Studios Hollywood. The tour simulates what an earthquake would feel like if the person was in an underground subway car. In multiple videos of…

Was Hurricane Dora, which passed nearly 500 miles south of Hawaii, too far away to fan the deadly wildfires that killed scores of people on Maui in early August 2023? No, that's not true: The flames that raced across western Maui were driven by a combination of a high-pressure system to the north and Dora, a low-pressure system, to the…

Did an orange laser beam ignite a fire in a Maui church that was already consumed in flames, surrounded by blowing embers, and palm trees bending in a heavy wind? No, that's not true: This photo has been altered. The original photo by Maui News photographer Matthew Thayer has been picked up by The Associated Press and was featured in…

Was the 2023 Hawaii Digital Government Summit scheduled with the purpose of turning Maui into "the first smart island," "governed by AI" and was the August 2023 wildfire started to create a crisis to be solved by AI? No, that's not true: As of this writing, the event's website did not show any Maui-specific sections or outline any plans to…