Fact Check: Old Video Of Strong Waves Lashing Against Bridge Shared As That Of Cyclone Tauktae

As Cyclone Tauktae made landfall in Gujarat and Maharashtra on May 19, 2021, videos and pictures of the cyclone and the trail of devastation it left behind started doing rounds on social media.

A video showing visuals of strong waves lashing against a bridge started doing rounds on social media with a claim that it is of Cyclone Tauktae and it shows the impact in Amreli, Gujarat.

“#ताऊ ते का #गुजरात के राजूला,#अमरेली में असर”, the caption read.

(Translation: #Tauktae’s impact in Rajula, Amreli, Gujarat)

View similar post here, here and here.

FACT CHECK

NewsMobile fact-checked the above post and found that the video is old.

We extracted keyframes from the video and ran it through Reverse Image Search along with several keywords. We found a link to the same YouTube video. The video was uploaded on November 16, 2018, with the title ‘#Gaja cyclone – Rameswaram Pamban Bridge by 7 am today (16-11-18)‘.

Cyclone Gaja made landfall over Tamil Nadu coast on November 16, 2018. It left behind a huge trail of destruction in the districts of Nagapattinam, Cuddalore, Thanjavur, and Karaikal in the Union Territory of Puducherry. According to official records, around 250,000 people were displaced from their homes along the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry coastline.

The same video was uploaded by another YouTube channel on December 9, 2017, with a claim that the video is from Sri Lanka.

The same video was passed off as waves affecting the Bandra Worli sea link in Mumbai as well in 2017.

NewsMobile could not independently verify the origin and the location of the video. However, the details highlighted above show that the video existed on the internet before  Cyclone Tauktae made landfall in Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Hence, the above claim is false.