Does a compilation of storm video clips show the effects of Hurricane Helene in Fort Myers, Florida, on September 26, 2024? No, that's not true: This clickbait compilation was published several hours before Hurricane Helene made landfall and shows footage from past storms in several locations along the Eastern Seaboard. None of the identified video clips show Hurricane Helene. One clip does show Fort Myers -- but during Hurricane Ian in 2022.
The mislabeled compilation video (archived here) was posted on X at 6:01 p.m. EDT on September 26, 2024. It was captioned:
This is looking like it's going to be a complete disaster #helene This is out of fort myers
This is how the post appeared at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Fri Sep 27 14:30:25 2024 UTC)
Yellow titling over the video clips read:
September 26, 2024
Hurricane Helene effects Fort Myers, FL
For comparison, the embedded video below shows the Hurricane Helene storm surge coming into Fort Myers Beach, Florida. This was posted by NBC2 News at 6:57 p.m. on September 26, 2024, almost an hour after the post on X.
Storm surge from Category 4 Hurricane Helene pushes into Fort Myers Beach, Florida, submerging the island, One day before the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Ian that devastated the island. pic.twitter.com/tvsvNKpm1f
-- NBC2 News (WBBH-TV) (@NBC2) September 26, 2024
The storm surge flooded Fort Myers and other towns on the southwestern Florida coast. According to a post from the National Hurricane Center, the eye of Hurricane Helene made landfall at 11:10 p.m. EDT on September 26, 2024, as a Category 4 hurricane near the mouth of the Aucilla River, near Perry, Florida -- with winds at about 140 miles per hour. Perry is in the "Big Bend" region of Florida's Gulf Coast and is approximately 275 miles to the northwest of Fort Myers Beach.
(Source: X screenshot taken on Fri Sep 27 15:56:23 2024 UTC)
The Lead Stories composite image below (will open larger in a new window) has been numbered for clarity. It shows five of the seven clips included in the 51-second-long compilation on X. There were two clips between 29 seconds and 44 seconds that did not yield results with a reverse image search.
(Source: Lead Stories composite image with X screenshots taken on Fri Sep 27 18:11:10 2024 UTC)
The storms pictured
- Scituate, Massachusetts, seawall: The date of this exact footage is unknown. The waterfront homes here are frequently filmed when storms hit the seawall. Drone footage filmed on February 2, 2021, and posted on YouTube by Live Storms Media shows the same home battered by waves at the 32-seconds mark.
- Fort Myers, Florida: September 29, 2022, footage posted on YouTube by CBS News shows a yacht that has broken free from its moorings colliding with a flooded beachfront patio at the 10-seconds mark. The video is titled, "Fort Myers sees historic storm surge during Hurricane Ian."
- Cedar Key, Florida: A video titled, "Hurricane Idalia causes major flooding in Florida" was posted on YouTube by First Coast News on August 30, 2023. The video was filmed from a balcony of the University of Florida Nature Coast Biological Station.
- Kure Beach, North Carolina: This scene appears in a video posted on X on September 16, 2024. According to the National Weather Service, the date coincides with Potential Tropical Cyclone Eight, which brought historic flooding to the area.
- Ponce, Puerto Rico: This video posted on Facebook by WXChasing on September 18, 2022, is captioned, "Winds from #HurricaneFiona rip roofs off buildings in Ponce, Puerto Rico."
Clips 1, 3 and 4, in the mislabeled compilation were flipped on a horizontal axis from how they appeared originally.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks of false claims about Hurricane Helene can be found here. Our fact checks about extreme weather are here.
