CORRECTION -- STORY UPDATED: check for updates below.
Is a photo that shows damage and flooding from Hurricane Melissa in Black River, Jamaica on October 28, 2025, authentic? No, that's not true: The image was likely made by an artificial intelligence tool, according to a test by an AI detector tool. It appeared on multiple social media accounts.
The claim appeared with an image in an October 28, 2025 post on X.com account @jahangir_sid (archived here). It opened:
🚨Damage and floods from Hurricane Melissa in Black River, Jamaica.
#HurricaneMelissa #Melissa #Jamaica
This is what the image looked like on X.com at the time of writing:
(Image source: X.com account @jahangir_sid screenshot taken by Lead Stories.)
The image was posted on other social media accounts including a Russian Telegram post as Hurricane Melissa was heading toward Jamaica as this screenshot shows:
(Image source: Telegram account @360.ru screenshot taken by Lead Stories.)
Hurricane Melissa struck Jamaica at 1 p.m. Eastern on October 28, 2025 as reported on Reuters.
Lead Stories ran the image through the HIVE Moderation AI detection tool and it said the image was 99.8% likely AI generated as this screenshot shows:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of photo analysis report by HIVE.com.)
Updates:
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2025-10-31T16:56:43Z 2025-10-31T16:56:43Z CORRECTION: Due to an editor's error, the original version of this fact check mis-stated the time the tweet was posted. It appeared after Melissa made landfall, not before. The error was pointed out to Lead Stories by an IFCN peer at Provereno.Media of Russia.
