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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.

3,262 published reviews in this topic

Vishvas NewsDisasters & emergencies

“டிசம்பர் 8 ஆம் தேதி புயல் வரலாம் “Tauktao” என்று பெயர் … டிசம்பர் 17 ஆம் தேதி புயல் வரலாம் “Yaas” என்று பெயர் … டிசம்பர் 24 ஆம் தேதி புயல் வரலாம் “Gulab”என்று பெயர் … ஜனவரி 01 ஆம் தேதி ஒரு புயல் வரலாம். “Shaheen”என்று பெயர் … ஜனவரி 8 ஆம் தேதி ஒருபுயல் வரலாம்

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaDisasters & emergencies

බුරවි සුළි කුණාටුව නිසා ඉන්දියාවට ඇතිවූ බලපෑම් පෙන්නුම් කරන රූප රාමු පෙළක් ද? | This is not damage caused by Cyclone Burevi to India

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The review investigated a video shared in Sri Lanka as showing the damage Cyclone Burevi had recently caused in India. The post was captioned “Sri Lanka was spared. What happened to India,” and the review says the footage showed severe wind damage. Its conclusion was that the video did not document Burevi’s effects: it was assembled from older cyclone footage, principally material from Cyclone Fani in India’s Odisha state in 2019. To check the footage, the investigators examined still frames from the circulating video and compared them with videos of earlier storms. The article says the clip combined scenes from several locations and that many identifiable frames matched footage of Fani. It also identified a segment showing a car lifted by strong winds as footage of Cyclone Vardah, which affected Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in 2016. Other segments were not specifically identified, but the article notes that one such video had been uploaded to YouTube in 2019, rather than depicting a recent event. The review distinguishes the false attribution from the storms’ actual effects. It says Burevi and the earlier Cyclone Nivar affected some places in Tamil Nadu, while the dramatic footage used in the post was predominantly from older storms. It also reports that a video made from old clips had circulated in India in early December as showing Burevi’s effects; another investigation cited by the article likewise found that the roughly 16-part compilation was unrelated to Burevi.

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaDisasters & emergencies

FACT CHECK: Old And Unrelated Video Shared As Cyclone Burevi In Sri Lanka

Publisher’s rating: False

The claim concerned a video circulated on social media as showing Cyclone Burevi in Sri Lanka. The review says the cyclone struck the country’s north-eastern coast on the night of December 2 and moved west the following day, while the video was shared with captions identifying it as Burevi. The investigation concluded that the clip was older footage of a funnel cloud in Wadduwa, not a recent recording of the cyclone.

Fact CrescendoDisasters & emergencies

Claim: Karachi billboard accident video being shared as Chennai rain damage

Publisher’s rating: False

The claim concerns footage circulated as showing storm damage in Poonamallee, Chennai: a metal sheet flying into a road during rain. The review describes the scene and says it was shared in connection with the damage from Cyclone Nivar. It reports that the street, vehicles and surrounding appearance did not look like Chennai, and notes that the video did not show the kind of street flooding the reviewers expected in that location. Those observations prompted further checking, rather than serving as the sole basis for identifying the footage. The review says it extracted a frame from the video and performed a reverse-image search. That search led to reporting identifying the incident as a road accident in Karachi, Pakistan. The review places it near the Avari Hotel and says related news and video footage had been available online since August 2020. It therefore concludes that the footage shows an incident in Karachi during rain, not storm damage in Poonamallee, Chennai. The excerpt does not provide the linked Pakistani report itself, so its details are presented here as the original review’s account of what that reporting showed.

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaDisasters & emergencies

2011 Video Of Tsunami In Japan Shared As Recent Karachi Floods…

Publisher’s rating: False

The claim concerned a video circulating as recent flooding in Karachi, Pakistan. The review says a Facebook post uploaded on 1 December showed water engulfing city streets and carried the overlaid words “Karachi Pakistan Today.” It reports that the footage was shared widely, including among social media users in Sri Lanka.

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaDisasters & emergencies

“බුරවි” සුළි කුණාටුව ලෙස හුවමාරු වූ පැරණි වීඩියෝවක්! | Old video from Wadduwa shared as Burevi Cyclone affecting Sri Lanka

Publisher’s rating: False

The review investigated a video circulating on social media as showing Cyclone Burevi in Sri Lanka. It reports that the video was being shared under the cyclone label, including in a post using the hashtag #CycloneBurevi. The investigation concluded that the footage was not a recording of Burevi: it had circulated for years and showed a scene in Wadduwa, near the Damro premises. To trace the footage, the reviewers say they used Google reverse-image search on frames from the circulating video. They found a similar video uploaded to YouTube in 2016 under the title “Tornado sri lanka,” and noted that the same footage had also been recirculated in other misleading claims, including claims that it showed tornadoes in India and a tornado in Galle. The review’s account places the footage’s prior circulation well before Burevi. The review further reports that it identified the location as Wadduwa and compared the scene with reporting about funnel clouds in the area. Its stated distinction is that the funnel cloud in the video does not touch the ground. On that evidence and the earlier provenance, the footage does not substantiate the claim that it shows Cyclone Burevi; it is old Wadduwa footage being presented with a new, misleading label.

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

Marina beach and accompanying roads inundated with rainwater due to Nivar Cyclone

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The review examined a video being shared as showing Marina beach and nearby roads flooded by rain from Cyclone Nivar. It reports that the same visuals appeared on YouTube at least as early as 2017, before the cyclone-related claim, and that channels had shared them then as footage of flood-hit Marina beach. To trace the footage, the investigators searched YouTube using the keywords “Chennai marina beach floods” and found a 2017 local-news video with the same visuals. They also found other verified channels’ 2017 uploads and similar videos that were at least three years old. The local-news report described the footage as showing Marina beach and nearby roads inundated with floodwater. That history contradicts presenting the video as current Nivar footage. The review also qualifies what the older material establishes: it says it found no credible evidence proving the video was related to the 2017 Chennai floods. Thus, the investigation supports identifying the footage as older than the Nivar claim, but does not establish when the footage was filmed or which flood event it depicts.

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

Billboard falling on commuters due to strong winds coupled with heavy rain on Poonamallee highway road in Chennai

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video said to show a billboard falling on commuters on Poonamallee Highway in Chennai during strong winds and heavy rain. The review says it checked the video’s location by searching YouTube for “billboard falling on commuters” and comparing the results with news coverage and images matching the footage. Those searches led to reports and videos identifying the scene as an incident in Karachi, Pakistan, rather than Chennai. The review reports that one news video described the Karachi incident as injuring two motorcyclists, and that other news articles carried images similar to those in the circulating video and also placed the incident in Karachi. On that basis, it concludes the footage was falsely linked to Chennai. The account does not provide the exact date of the Karachi incident, so its timing cannot be independently specified from this excerpt. The review also notes that the same video had circulated a couple of months earlier with a different claim, and that misleading posts were being shared in the context of Cyclone Nivar. That context explains why the clip was circulating, but the review’s location check—not the storm context—is its stated basis for rejecting the Chennai attribution.

Fact Crescendo Sri Lankahttps://archive.vn/zG2bNDisasters & emergencies

නවනැලිය ග්‍රාමයේ ගිනිගත් නිවසක් ගොඩනැගීමට මෙම අසරණ මව සහ දුවට ආධාර අවශ්‍ය ද? This family from Nawaneliya no longer require any donations to built a house

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The claim concerns appeals for donations to rebuild a home in Nawaneliya after a fire, and says the family no longer needs contributions. The investigation identifies the circulating appeal as an old one: it says posts about the fire first appeared in 2018, and that the same photographs had been used in a post dated 29 October 2018. The appeal was being recirculated later as if assistance were still needed. To check the family’s circumstances, the investigators called a phone number included in the appeal. The woman who answered said she was receiving calls because the story had been reposted, and asked people not to respond to the appeal. She said the house had been completed the previous year with help from many people, so further assistance was not expected. The investigation also reports that a September 2019 newspaper story described a new home for the mother and daughter in place of the one destroyed by fire. Taken together, the reported call and the later account of the replacement home support the claim’s central point: the old donation request was no longer valid. The evidence does not establish that the original appeal was false when first posted; it shows that it had become outdated when recirculated.