Old videos misrepresented as Hurricane BeryI hitting Jamaica

What is the claim? 

A video comprising two different visuals — one showing a flooded area and the other showing lightning in the sky — is being shared online, claiming the footage depicts the effect of Hurricane Beryl on the Caribbean Islands in 2024.

An X (formerly Twitter) user shared the video with the caption, "#WATCH the moment that the #Hurricane hit Jamaica. Stay safe, remain in shelter, stay rightly informed. #DominicanRepublic #hurricaneberyl #SantoDomingo #Beryl #Jamaica #Huracán  #Carriacou #JamaicaBeryl #BerylHurricane #JamaicaHurricane.” 

The viral video has two videos: video one shows a flooded area with a storm, and video two, which starts at 0:07 seconds, shows lightning in the sky over a car park. The archive of such posts can be found here and here.

Screenshots of the social media posts. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

Hurricane Beryl formed in the Atlantic Ocean in June and caused damaging winds, torrential rainfall, and dangerous storms. It has destroyed many houses, trees, and electricity poles in the southeastern Caribbean. On July 5, 2024, it lashed Jamaica Island and headed toward Mexico. So far, around seven people have been killed, the BBC reports. The Indian cricket team, which won the T20 World Cup on June 29, 2024, in Bridgetown, Barbados, was stuck on the island as Barbados International Airport suspended operations due to the hurricane. They returned three days later, CNN reports.

The claim surrounding the video is false because the visuals are from 2022 and 2023 and predate the hurricane.

What we found

Video 1 

Through a reverse image search, we found a longer version of the video posted by X user Joe Guerra (archived here) on September 29, 2022. It was captioned, "Our community in Southwest Florida will not be the same for a very long time as a result of #huricaneian. This storm surge has destroyed everything in its path and it's still going. #HurricaneIan #FortMyers." The location was tagged as Fort Myers, Florida. The part included in the viral video starts at the time stamp of 0:12 and ends at 0:22 seconds. The trees, landscape, and buildings match the viral video.

Comparison of viral video with Joe Guerra's video. (Source: X)

9 News, an Australian news outlet, posted a screenshot of Joe Guerra's footage of Hurricane Ian and captioned it: "Joe Guerra filmed powerful winds as a storm surge swallowed Fort Myers."

Further, we found the same footage cited by the New York Post in its September 29, 2022 report. The report states that Hurricane Ian hit Fort Myers, Florida, on September 28, 2022, damaged many houses, caused a flood, and made landfall in Fort Myers. This shows that the video has been online since 2022 before Hurricane Beryl hit the Caribbean Islands.

Video 2

A reverse image search showed that the video of the lightning in the sky dates back to 2023. The same video was found on the TikTok channel rtsarovvideo (archived here), posted on June 23, 2024. It was captioned "Thunderstorm with lightning discharge." The channel's bio states that the videos are "real and edited." The now-viral video was shared on the user's YouTube channel (archived here). It should be noted that this channel has posted several edited videos.

Comparison of viral video with YouTube video. (Source: X/YouTube)

Logically Facts has contacted channel user Rostyslav Tsarov for a quote. We will update the story once we get a response. Logically Facts has previously debunked several claims that Rostyslav Tsarov's videos of natural disasters have been falsely linked to other storms and hurricanes.

The verdict

Old videos from 2022 and 2023 have been misattributed as the effect of Hurricane Beryl, which recently hit the Caribbean Islands. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.