Montage wrongly links storm damage clips to Hurricane Helene | Fact check

The claim: Video shows Hurricane Helene destruction in Florida

A Sept. 26 Threads post ( direct link , archive link ) includes a video montage that shows a beach house toppling over into ocean waters and various other clips of storm footage.

"September 26, 2024 Hurricane Helene impacts Florida, USA," reads on-screen text in the video, which is a repost of a TikTok video.

The post's caption reads, "8 am this morning."

The post was liked more than 600 times in a day.

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Our rating: False

The video is miscaptioned. It wrongly links clips of unrelated storm damage to Hurricane Helene in Florida.

Video includes recycled clips unrelated to Hurricane Helene

Hurricane Helene made landfall about 11:10 p.m. ET Sept. 26 near Perry, Florida, after forming as a tropical storm Sept. 24 and strengthening to a Category 4 storm in the Gulf of Mexico, according to media reports and NASA . The storm had killed at least 33 people as of Sept. 27, and knocked out power for more than 4.5 million utility customers in the southeastern U.S.

But the montage in the Threads post shows storm damage unrelated to Hurricane Helene. Some clips are more than a year old, and others weren't filmed in Florida.

For example, the opening shot of the beach house falling over was posted to YouTube by CNN on Sept. 25. The news organization reported the video shows a coastal home collapsing Sept. 24 in Rodanthe, North Carolina, along a beach that is "rapidly eroding." It was that latest in a string of homes that had collapsed there since Sept. 20, CNN reported, citing the National Park Service.

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The next clip shows a swirl of storm debris recorded from a patio overlooking a parking lot and residential street. But this video predates Hurricane Helene. It has been online since at least July 15, when it was posted on YouTube with a caption that says it shows tornado damage in Iowa.

The montage moves on to a clip of a damaged backyard playhouse with a yellow slide in a downpour. This video has been online since at least December 2020, when it was posted on YouTube . The caption says it shows a storm hitting a backyard in Australia.

Another clip in the post shows patio furniture being blown into a backyard pool. But that video has been circulating online since at least September 2022, when it was posted on Facebook with a title that references a city in California.

USA TODAY could not determine the source of other clips in the 66-second video, including clips of heavy rain falling on residential streets and a clip of a tree toppling over near a pickup truck.

The Threads and TikTok users who shared the video did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Our fact-check sources:

• USA TODAY, Sept. 27, Helene wreaking havoc across Southeast; 22 dead; 4.4M in the dark: Live updates
• NASA, Sept. 26, Hurricane Helene 2024
• CNN, Sept. 24, Evacuations begin in Florida as the state faces a major hurricane strike from Helene
• CNN (YouTube), Sept. 25, Beach house collapses into water
• Disaster Update (YouTube), July 15, A tornado caused damage in Urbandale, Iowa – July 15, 2024 @cmorrissey89
• StoryViral (YouTube), Dec. 7, 2020, Storm That Came 'Out of Nowhere' Lifts Trampoline From Queensland Garden
• What's Up SCV, Sept. 4, 2022, Facebook post

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Montage wrongly links storm damage clips to Hurricane Helene | Fact check