Hurricane Ian made the final landfall in Florida on September 28, 2022 — as a powerful category 4 storm — causing massive destruction in the Caribbean Islands. It is considered as one of the most powerful storms to hit the US in recent times producing catastrophic flooding across the state.
Against this backdrop, a viral video showing a giant creature flopping through the streets at night is doing the rounds on social media. People claim that the visual is from Florida as a result of the hurricane.
A Facebook user posted the viral video with a caption: Florida is out of control right now #HurricaneIan
You can check the video here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the viral video, and found it to be misleading.
Running a Reverse Image Search of the video keyframes, we found a news report published in NDTV, dated October 9, 2020. The report, titled: Massive Elephant Seal Found Wandering Around Coastal Town. Watch, informs us that the creature in the video is an elephant seal and it is seen wandering around Puerto Cisnes in Chile in October 2020. The town was under a COVID-19 curfew when this incident happened.
The Spanish tweet embedded in the report contains a video that matches exactly with the viral video. It further informs us that the seal travelled more than 10 blocks into the town before the citizens helped it find its way back into the ocean.
Con apoyo de vecinos de Puerto Cisnes, Armada y Carabineros, se logró traer de vuelta a elefante marino, que recorrió más de 10 cuadras, finalmente con lonas y más de 60 vecinos fue resguardado y llevado a su hábitat. pic.twitter.com/w5rvUzJq53
— Manuel Novoa (@Autentica995) October 6, 2020
Running a Keyword Search to know more about the incident, we traced a video published in The Guardian, dated October 7, 2020. The article, titled: Elephant seal stranded on street returned to ocean with help from residents in Chile – video, contains a video that is shot from a different angle. The article further informs us that the people came together to guide the seal back to its habitat with the help of the Carabineros and Navy personnel.
A similar video can also be seen on the official YouTube channel of Global News — a Canadian news network, confirming that the incident, indeed, happened in Chile in 2020, as opposed to the viral claim of it being recent in Florida.
Therefore, based on our investigation, we can conclusively say that the viral video claiming a giant creature roaming the streets of Florida as a result of hurricane Ian, is misleading.
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