Did a video show Hurricane Helene causing a storm surge of 15 to 20 feet in Florida? No, that's not true: The footage is from 2022's Hurricane Ian. A reverse image search showed that the footage had been published online on September 29, 2022, on YouTube by storm chaser Max Olson.
The claim appeared in a post on X (archived here) on September 25, 2024. The caption read:
I'll never understand you idiots that live in Florida in the center of hurricane pathways....
This is from hurricane Helene right now, storm surge is like 15-20ft 🤯
Get outta here I ain't owning property in the midst of this nightmare 😂
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Sep 26 13:26:00 2024 UTC)
On September 26, 2024, CBS News reported that 2024's Hurricane Helene "could bring 'catastrophic and deadly storm surge'" to parts of Florida's Gulf Coast. More information on Hurricane Helene can be found here.
The video included in the claim on X showed high-speed winds, flooding and a cloudy sky. The account on X that claimed the video showed Hurricane Helene did not provide any evidence to confirm this.
A watermark in the video's bottom left corner read, "MAX OLSON CHASING" and a reverse image search of a still from the posted video led Lead Stories to a September 29, 2022, video (archived here) on X.
This is what it looked like at the time of writing: 
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu, Sep 26 21:01:00 UTC 2024)
The caption read:
Absolutely heartbreaking footage captured by our surge probe of catastrophic storm surge washing away homes. I have never seen anything like this. We have now left the area as hoards of emergency crew have arrived. #HurricaneIan
FULL VIDEO - youtube.com/watch?v=al8yTi
The video link in the caption above led us to a YouTube channel called "Max Olson Chasing" (archived here). The channel posted the linked full video, titled "15ft Storm Surge Washes Away Homes In Ft. Myers Beach -- Hurricane Ian," on September 29, 2022. Hurricane Ian hit the eastern U.S., including Fort Myers Beach, Florida, during September 28-30, 2022.
The full 2022 video on YouTube showed the exact same footage as was seen in the claim on X about Hurricane Helene. The relevant footage appeared about 36 seconds (archived here) into the video on YouTube.
The same watermark that appeared in the video for the claim on X about Hurricane Helene can be seen in the video on YouTube in the lower lefthand corner :
(Source: YouTube screenshot taken on Thu Sep 26 13:54:19 2024 UTC)
Other Lead Stories fact checks of claims about hurricanes can be found here.
