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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

NewtralDisasters & emergencies

Tornado en Guardamar del Segura por la DANA

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerned a tornado image shared during the DANA and presented as showing Guardamar del Segura, in Alicante. The review says that this location attribution was false: the image showed a tornado off the coast of Sueca, Valencia, in 2016, rather than the DANA-period event in Guardamar. It identifies the image as an Instagram story that was subsequently shared on other social networks, including Facebook. The review supports its identification by comparing the circulated image with a 2016 video published by Levante. It notes that the same image appears in that video, including a distinctive yellow building rooftop, and reports that the Sueca tornado had been covered by Levante and international media. The review also attributes to the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) a description of the 2016 phenomenon as an exceptionally clear and imposing waterspout filmed on the Valencian coast. Crucially, the correction is about the image’s provenance, not a claim that no tornado occurred in Guardamar during the DANA. The review says Guardamar residents did witness a tornado on the morning of Thursday, September 12, and that AEMET’s SINOBAS system shared a video of that event. Thus, the misleading element was presenting the older Sueca image as footage from Guardamar; the review separately acknowledges a tornado in Guardamar that morning.

NewtralDisasters & emergencies

Riesgo de desbordamiento en el embalse de Puentes

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerned an imminent overflow or gate opening at the Puentes reservoir during the severe-weather emergency affecting southeastern Spain. Newtral reports that the Segura River Basin Authority had warned that false messages about several reservoirs were circulating, including messages saying Puentes was about to overflow and its gates would be opened. The review concludes that this claim was false. The decisive evidence cited is the basin authority’s own public clarification. Its post said that messages claiming Puentes would overflow or its gates would be opened were untrue, and that there was no danger at any reservoir. Newtral also notes that the authority activated the Santomera reservoir emergency plan at 13:13 that Friday; that was a separate development and does not establish danger at Puentes. The review places the clarification in the immediate chronology: the authority had issued several denials about Puentes twelve hours before the article’s account of the Santomera plan. Thus, the documented activation concerned Santomera, while the authority explicitly rejected the Puentes overflow warning.

NewtralDisasters & emergencies

Tornado en Guardamar del Segura por la DANA

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerns an Instagram image presented as showing a tornado in Guardamar del Segura during the DANA. Newtral says the image was shared on other social networks and that its location was falsely identified. It traces the tornado shown in the image to an event on the coast at Sueca, Valencia, in 2016—not to Guardamar during the 2019 storm. The article distinguishes that miscaptioned image from a separate event: residents of Guardamar did witness a tornado on the Thursday morning during the DANA. Newtral reports that the State Meteorological Agency’s SINOBAS system shared a video of that tornado on its Twitter account on September 12, 2019. Thus, the article does not say there was no tornado in Guardamar; it says the circulating image used to support that claim depicted a different tornado, from a different place and year. For the 2016 event, the article reports that AEMET had described the Sueca waterspout as the clearest and most imposing captured on the Valencian coast in at least the previous decade. The excerpt does not specify how Newtral independently matched the Instagram image to the 2016 event, so no additional image-analysis method can be established from the supplied text.

NewtralDisasters & emergencies

Existe riesgo de desbordamiento en el embalse de Puentes

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The review addresses claims circulating in September 2019 that the Puentes reservoir was about to overflow and its gates would be opened. It reports that the Segura River Basin Authority said the reservoirs were under control at the time the verification was published, and that the situation at Puentes presented no risk. The article also quotes the Authority explicitly denying danger at any reservoir in its September 12 statement.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturDisasters & emergencies

Ein furchtbarer Unfall mit vier Toten in Berlin erschüttert die Menschen. Nun behaupten einige Facebook-Nutzer, der Fahrer des Unfallwagens sei Marokkaner. «Terroranschlag?», fragt ein Mann.

Publisher’s rating: Der Fahrer des Wagens ist Deutscher. Die Polizei geht weiterhin von einem Unfall aus.

The claim concerned a fatal SUV crash in Berlin-Mitte on September 6, 2019. Facebook users alleged that the driver was Moroccan, and one asked whether the incident was a terror attack. The review reports that the SUV crossed an intersection in the evening and killed four people. To check the driver’s identity, the German Press Agency says it contacted Berlin police. A police spokesperson identified the 42-year-old driver as a German citizen and said he was not of Moroccan origin. This directly contradicts the claim about his nationality and origin. On the question of terrorism, the review reports that police continued to treat the crash as an accident. The excerpt does not provide further details about the investigation or explain what evidence led police to that assessment.

NewtralDisasters & emergencies

Vídeo del huracán Dorian acercándose a la costa de Florida

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The video circulated as supposed footage of Hurricane Dorian approaching Florida’s coast, but Newtral reports that it was an artistic animation and was not connected to that hurricane. The review says the video appeared on Instagram before Dorian arrived, and describes the account that posted it as producing surreal, looping animations of weather phenomena. To investigate its origins, Newtral says it traced the animation to two Shutterstock photographs: one of a hurricane taken in Kansas by storm chaser Cammie Czuchnicki, and another of the Miami coast taken by a photographer using the name Pisaphotography. The hurricane image was superimposed over the coastal image. That provenance indicates the video combined existing images rather than documenting Dorian approaching Florida. The timing and the creator’s own presentation further distinguish the animation from the claimed event. The review dates the Instagram post to May 18, three months before Dorian’s arrival, and notes that its hashtags referred to image manipulation, special effects, and artistic design. Newtral’s stated conclusion is that the video was neither real footage nor related to Dorian.

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

Mumbai Traffic signal post swept in floodwater

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video of a traffic signal post being swept along by floodwater and says the incident happened in Mumbai. FACTLY’s investigation identifies the video as showing a different location: Yulin city in China. The review states that the footage was shared with the Mumbai claim, but concludes that it “isn’t from Mumbai.” To check the location, the review says it examined details visible in the footage. Shop boards and a sticker on a bike appear in Chinese, which the review treats as evidence that the scene is not Mumbai. It also searched YouTube using the keywords “china rainwater traffic signal” and found a longer version of the clip that had been posted on Facebook. The longer video’s description, as quoted in the review, says it was filmed in Yulin City, in China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and shows a temporary traffic light being swept down a street by floodwaters. The review reports that the video was uploaded in 2018 by Chinese government news channel CGTN. This provenance and the visible Chinese-language details support the review’s conclusion that the video is from Yulin, not Mumbai.

DUBAWADisasters & emergencies

This claim says that the MTN office in Apapa Lagos was set ablaze.

Publisher’s rating: False

The claim concerned an alleged fire at MTN’s Apapa office in Lagos, shared amid xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in South Africa. DUBAWA reports that a Twitter user posted the allegation and that Nigerian blogs circulated it, using the same image as corroboration. The review’s conclusion is that the Apapa office was not set on fire; it says the image did not show that office or that event. [S1: “At the early hours of Tuesday, a twitter user alleged that the MTN office in Apapa was set ablaze by some Nigerians.This comes in lieu of the xenophobic attack on Nigerians living in South Africa.”; “WithinNigeria,1stnews and some other Nigerian blogs aided in the story’s circulation. All corroborating the alleged burning of the MTN office in Apapa. And their common denominator being the picture above.”; “FALSE: MTN office in Apapa was not lit on fire.”] To check the allegation, the review says it contacted Lagos State Police spokesperson DSP Bala Elkana. It reports that he told Tribune Online there had been no fire at the Apapa MTN office. The review also traced the circulated picture to an earlier fire at MTN’s Tanke branch in Ilorin, rather than to Apapa. [S1: “The Lagos State Police PPRO was our first point of contact. DSP Bala Elkana disclosed to Tribune Online that there was no fire incidence at the MTN office in Apapa.”; “Additionally, the picture in question was traced to a fire incident that occurred at the MTN -Tanke branch, Ilorin in March, 2015.”] These details address both parts of the viral account: the reported location and the image offered as evidence. The review’s account distinguishes the claimed Apapa incident from the documented provenance of the image, which it places at an Ilorin branch fire in March 2015. It attributes the police information to Elkana’s disclosure to Tribune Online and does not describe an independent inspection of the Apapa site. [S1: “DSP Bala Elkana disclosed to Tribune Online that there was no fire incidence at the MTN office in Apapa.”; “the picture in question was traced to a fire incident that occurred at the MTN -Tanke branch, Ilorin in March, 2015.”]

NewtralDisasters & emergencies

Vídeo de la tormenta que cayó sobre Arganda del Rey (Madrid)

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The review examines a video being shared as footage of the storm that hit Arganda del Rey, Madrid, on the preceding Monday. It says the images were not recorded in Madrid, Spain, or even Europe, and identifies their location instead as Las Vegas. The key distinction is between the event the video was said to depict and the place and time the footage actually came from. To trace the footage, the investigation reports using reverse-image searches of several video frames. It says this led to material from the Nevada Seismological Laboratory, which recorded the images in Las Vegas in July 2018. The review further states that the video was published on the Facebook account of the US National Weather Service. These details place the footage more than a year before the storm it was being linked to, and in a different country. The excerpt does not provide the original post’s date, a direct link to the source video, or frame-by-frame comparison details. Its stated finding is therefore supported here by the investigation’s reported search and provenance, rather than by independently reproduced media evidence.

NewtralDisasters & emergencies

De todos modos, los incendios de este año no están fuera del promedio de los últimos 15 años…

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim was made by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in a speech about Amazon fires on August 23, 2019. It asserted that the fires that year remained within the average of the previous 15 years. Newtral’s review reports figures from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), comparing the period through July 2019 with the same period in 2004–2018. The reported burned area was 18,629 square kilometers, against a 15-year average of 13,372 square kilometers—39% higher. The comparison also found that the burned area through July 2019 was the second-largest recorded since 2006, behind 2016, when 19,220 square kilometers burned. The claim was not supported by looking only at area: the reported count of fire hotspots also exceeded the historical average. Inpe data cited by Newtral put the 2019 total through July at 15,924, compared with an average of 14,133 for 2004–2018, a 12.6% increase. These figures address the claim’s stated comparison: both the burned-area measure and the fire-count measure were above the 15-year average for the comparable period. The excerpt attributes the figures to Inpe but does not provide the underlying dataset or describe an independent recalculation by Newtral.