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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

Projeto ComprovaDisasters & emergencies

Comportas no RS foram abertas, provocando desastre

Publisher’s rating: São falsos os posts que alegam que as barragens do Rio Taquari, que cruza a região mais afetada pelas enchentes dos dias 4 e 5 de setembro no Rio Grande do Sul, se romperam ou tiveram suas comportas abertas. As estruturas sequer têm comportas capazes de controlar o fluxo de água e, segundo a empresa que administra as hidrelétricas, elas se mantiveram íntegras durante a passagem do ciclone extratropical que atingiu a região. Autoridades estaduais, federais e meteorologistas afirmam que o grande volume de água que alagou as cidades do Vale do Taquari foi causado por eventos climáticos naturais.

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

Videos showing the recent devastating floods in Libya

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The review investigates social-media videos presented as recent footage of the devastating floods in Libya following Storm Daniel. It says the videos it examined were either CGI or unrelated older visuals, and focuses on two examples: one purportedly showing floodwaters submerging a bridge and another said to show a tornado sweeping through streets during a rainstorm in Libya. Its conclusion applies to these videos, not necessarily to every video circulating about the floods. (S1: “multiple videos are being shared on social media claiming that they show the recent visuals of devastating floods in Libya”; “All these videos show either CGI videos or unrelated old visuals related to devastating floods caused in different countries.”) For the bridge video, the review describes reverse-image searches of screenshots. It reports finding matching visuals posted in 2016 and identified in those posts as flooding in Al Farshah village, in Saudi Arabia’s Aseer province. The review also found an extended version on Daralakhbar.com’s Facebook page, dated 09 April 2016, which described a torrent blocking roads in Al-Farshah village in the Tihama Qahtan area of Saudi Arabia. (S1: “videos showing the same visuals were found posted by several social media users in 2016”; “This news channel reported it is the visuals of a massive torrent blocking the roads in Al-Farshah village in Tihama Qahtan area of Saudi Arabia.”) For the second video, the review says reverse-image searching found similar visuals on Shutterstock, where the video was titled “Hurricane Damage in Coastal Town.” It reports that the Shutterstock video does not show a tornado, and that the YouTube channel @rtsarovvideo described itself as creating edited videos about severe weather and natural disasters. Together, these findings point to older Saudi flood footage and edited or miscaptioned material—not the claimed Libyan flood scenes—as the sources of the two examples examined. (S1: “The original video does not show the visuals of a tornado.”; “This YouTube channel published many similar videos of tornadoes sweeping the streets.”)

Folha de S.PauloDisasters & emergencies

Vídeos e publicações em texto que circulam nas redes sociais trazem pessoas afirmando que as enchentes em municípios do Rio Grande do Sul, que deixaram dezenas de mortos, foram provocadas pela abertura de comportas em represas dos rios das Antas e Taquari.

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerns social-media videos and text posts alleging that opening gates at dams on the Antas and Taquari rivers caused the deadly flooding in Rio Grande do Sul’s Vale do Taquari. The investigation examined whether those dams could have released water in the way the posts described. Ceran, which operates three hydroelectric plants on the rivers, told investigators that the dams do not have gates capable of holding back and then releasing the stored water; the Castro Alves plant, in the hardest-hit area, has no gates at all. The plants generate electricity using the river’s current and gravity. The review also reports that Aneel, the federal agency responsible for overseeing hydroelectric generation, told Estadão Verifica that the dams’ structure meant they could not have worsened the flooding. The National Water Agency likewise told the outlet that power generation relied on the current, without gates. Ceran denied opening gates and said it had monitored its structures in real time, with no anomalies indicating a risk of failure and no emergency sirens activated. The review attributes the flooding to heavy rainfall associated with a natural weather system, not dam-gate operations. Meteorologists and authorities cited in the article said an extratropical cyclone formed in a low-pressure system in the region; they added that the event may have been intensified by a stalled front carrying warm, humid air from the Amazon region. Together, the reported dam design and agency statements contradict the specific claim that opening gates caused or aggravated the flooding.

dpaDisasters & emergencies

Cette vidéo montre un bâtiment s'effondrer suite au récent tremblement de terre au Maroc.

Publisher’s rating: Cette vidéo, filmée à Casablanca, n'est pas récente. Elle circulait déjà en ligne en 2020. Elle n'a donc rien à voir avec le séisme du 8 septembre 2023.

The claim was that footage of a multi-storey building collapsing showed damage caused by the earthquake that struck Morocco in September 2023. The review identifies the video as showing a building collapse in Casablanca, but says it predates that earthquake: it had already circulated online in 2020 and was unrelated to the September 8, 2023, event. The review also notes that some posts presented the clip as current, while others placed it southwest of Marrakech. [S1: “Une vidéo visionnée des dizaines de milliers de fois sur différentes plateformes montrerait un bâtiment s'écrouler à la suite du violent tremblement de terre qui a frappé le Maroc début septembre 2023.”; “Cette vidéo, filmée à Casablanca, n'est pas récente. Elle circulait déjà en ligne en 2020. Elle n'a donc rien à voir avec le séisme du 8 septembre 2023.”; “Sur X (ancien Twitter), des internautes présentent clairement la vidéo comme actuelle, tandis que d'autres affirment que celle-ci aurait été tournée au sud-ouest de Marrakech.”] To check the video’s provenance, the review reports using reverse-image searches on Yandex and Google to find a longer version. It says that version appeared on Facebook on August 6, 2020, and on YouTube the following day. The YouTube title identified the collapse as occurring in Casablanca. [S1: “Une recherche d'image inversée sur divers moteurs de recherche, dont Yandex et Google, mène à une version plus longue de la vidéo. Celle-ci a notamment été publiée sur Facebook le 6 août 2020, et le lendemain sur YouTube. Le titre de cette dernière indique (traduction automatique) qu'une maison s'est effondrée à Casablanca, la plus grande ville du Maroc, située dans le centre-ouest du pays.”] The review further says that searches using those keywords found local media reports placing the incident in the Sbata district of Casablanca during the night of August 5–6, 2020. Those reports described the building’s dilapidated condition as a probable cause. This earlier date and location explain why the footage does not document the later earthquake. [S1: “Une seconde recherche à l'aide de ces mots-clés permet de retrouver plusieurs articles diffusés par des médias locaux à l'époque. D'après ceux-ci, l'incident s'est produit dans la nuit du 5 au 6 août 2020, dans l’arrondissement de Sbata à Casablanca. La vétusté de l'habitation est mentionnée comme cause probable.”]