NM FACT CHECKER

Fact Check: 2011 Video of Japan Tsunami Falsely Linked to Cyclone Freddy Impact in Madagascar

2023-03-13

Cyclone Freddy struck Madagascar and Mozambique in late February 2023 causing flooding in several areas and ripping roofs off houses. Against this backdrop, a video showing houses being washed away as flood water gushes through is widely shared on social media linking it to the impact of Cyclone Freddy.

The video is shared on Facebook with a caption: “Cyclone Freddy hits Madagascar. This is said to have been on Friday. Zambia is one of the countries that will be affected and has since been put on alert. Mozambique was also hit on Friday.”

Here’s the link to the above post.

FACT CHECK

NewsMobile fact-checked the above claim, and found it to be MISLEADING.

Running the Reverse Image Search, we spotted an official YouTube channel carrying the same viral video, dated February 25, 2021, with a caption: “At 2:46 pm on March 11, 2011, an earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0, the largest ever recorded in Japan, occurred off the Tohoku coast. A huge tsunami surged and caused enormous damage, including the death of 15,899 people nationwide.”

The same video was also uploaded from a different angle on a YouTube channel on March 31, 2011, claiming that it shows Japan’s tsunami. 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan killed nearly 20,000 people.