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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Disasters & emergencies fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about disasters & emergencies. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

3,259 published reviews in this topic

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

Visuals related to the Belagavi-Goa landslides

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The review examined a social-media video presented as showing a recent landslide on the Belagavi-Goa Road, along the Karnataka-Goa highway. It distinguishes that viral footage from actual landslides reported earlier that week at Anmod Ghat, which led to closure of the highway stretch. The review says media agencies reported those incidents and that visuals related to them were available; it concludes that the circulating video was not footage of those events. (S1: “Earlier this week, a couple of incidents of landslides were reported at Anmod Ghat, leading to the closure of the Karnataka-Goa stretch. Media agencies have reported these incidents, and visuals related to landslides can be viewed here and here.”) To investigate the circulating video, the reviewers used reverse image search and found reports attributing the visuals to landslides in the Northeast: some identified Mizoram, while local reports identified Assam. The article does not resolve which location is correct. Its central comparison is instead that the footage was already available online from June 2022, before it was claimed to show the recent Karnataka-Goa highway landslides. (S1: “A reverse image search of the viral visuals yielded few news reports, which attribute these visuals to the Northeast.”; “Although we could not independently verify the location of the viral visuals, the availability of these visuals on the internet from June 2022 suggests that the visuals are not related to the recent landslides along the Karanataka-Goa Road.”) Thus, the evidence supports rejecting the video’s attribution to the Belagavi-Goa event, but it does not establish the footage’s exact location. The review reports competing Northeast identifications and explicitly says the location could not be independently verified. (S1: “While few reports claim that the visuals are from Mizoram (here & here), other local reports claim that the visuals are from Assam (here, here & here).”; “Though the exact location of the video is not known”)

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

Recent visuals of a waterlogged road in Delhi.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a video circulating during the monsoon that was said to show a waterlogged road in Delhi. FACTLY’s review concluded that the footage was instead from Rohtak, Haryana: its stated finding is that “This video is from Rohtak, Haryana and is not related to Delhi.” The review therefore distinguishes the location depicted in this particular video from the fact that Delhi also experienced heavy rain around that period. The investigation describes following visible clues in the footage after reverse image search produced no noteworthy results. It reports that the first letter on a car’s number plate was “H,” rather than “DL,” and identifies two adjacent shops as Jio Digital Life and Chopra Electricals. Searching those clues led the investigators to addresses for both shops in Rohtak: Chopra Electricals on Civil Road in HUDA Complex, and a Jio store on Gohana Road near Huda Hospital. The review says a street view of the two stores matched the location. FACTLY also reports finding user-uploaded videos of Rohtak flooding from the previous week and media reports of heavy rain there on 30 June 2022. It says a video shared by AAP’s Haryana unit showed a representative explaining the Rohtak flood situation, with the same pillar number visible in the two videos. The review acknowledges that Delhi recorded heavy rainfall the previous week, but says that does not make this footage a video of Delhi. Its conclusion is specific to the circulating video, which it locates in Rohtak.

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

Recent visuals showing collapse of Narayangarh- Kathmandu Road in Nepal

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video said to show a recent collapse on the Narayangarh–Kathmandu road in Nepal. FACTLY reports that the footage instead shows a landslide-related collapse on national highway 707 in Sirmaur district, Himachal Pradesh. The road connects Shilai with Paonta Sahib, and the incident occurred in June 2021—not during the landslides reported in Nepal in June 2022. The review describes two checks: a reverse image search returned multiple 2021 news reports featuring the same visuals, and reports by multiple news agencies identified the footage as showing the collapse on highway 707 in Sirmaur. These findings connect the circulated video to the earlier Himachal Pradesh incident rather than the Nepal event named in the claim. The review notes that landslides did occur in Nepal, including around Narayangarh, in June 2022. But it distinguishes that true background from the video’s provenance: the visuals in the post were not related to those Nepal landslides.

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

Visuals showing father saving his two sons from drowning in floods

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns a viral video of a man rescuing two children from floodwaters, presented as a father saving his own two sons. The review places the footage in Bahla, a town in Oman, and reports that the man in the video was not their father. Instead, it identifies him as photographer Ali bin Nasser Al-Wardi, who was at the scene to take pictures and intervened to save the children. To investigate the video’s provenance, the review says it used reverse image searches of screenshots from the viral footage. Those searches returned multiple news reports showing the same visuals. The review describes one report as identifying Al-Wardi as the rescuer, and another as saying a stranger at the location—not the children’s father—saved them. The distinction between the rescuer’s identity and the claim attached to the video is decisive: the footage shows a rescue, but the review’s account identifies the rescuer as a photographer rather than the children’s father. It also reports that police and government officials appreciated him for his bravery.