The viral video is definitely from 2 September 2024, when Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, skilled heavy rainfall
Amid Cyclone Fengal’s ongoing influence, Sri Lanka and components of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are going through tough seas and robust winds. A video (here, here and here) has gone viral on social media, exhibiting heavy rainwater flooding on roads and disrupting automobiles, with claims that it’s from Marina Seashore Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Let’s discover the reality behind this video. (The archived publish will be discovered here.)
Declare: The viral video exhibits flooded roads and automobiles struggling to navigate close to Marina Seashore, Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
Reality: Chennai confronted flooding resulting from Cyclone Fengal, which began on 25 November 2024. However the viral video, which exhibits heavy rainfall and flooding, is definitely from 2 September 2024, when Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, skilled heavy rainfall. The viral video has no relation to the current floods in Chennai, making the declare deceptive.
To confirm the declare, we carried out a reverse picture search on Google, which led us to a video posted on Fb on 3 September 2024. The caption of the publish reads, “Heavy rain in Jeddah metropolis“.
One other outcome factors to the identical video uploaded on YouTube by the account yahyafarsi1430, with a caption stating, “Heavy rainfall in Jeddah metropolis on September 2.” This additional confirms that the video depicts scenes from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Additional analysis utilizing key phrases from the YouTube video led us to a number of experiences (here, here, here and here) detailing the flooding in Jeddah. On 2 September 2024, Jeddah skilled heavy rainfall resulting in flash floods that triggered important disruptions. Roads have been submerged, colleges have been closed, and authorities issued warnings for residents to keep away from valleys and waterways. At the very least 5 folks misplaced their lives throughout these floods, highlighting the severity of the scenario.
In the meantime, Cyclone Fengal originated within the Bay of Bengal on 25 November 2024 and intensified because it moved in the direction of the Indian shoreline. It made landfall on 25 November 2024, between Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, bringing heavy rainfall, robust winds, and extreme flooding. Chennai confronted important disruptions, together with waterlogging and street closures, with the cyclone claiming not less than 19 lives, together with 5 deaths in Chennai (here, here and here). Nevertheless, the viral video circulating on social media has no reference to this incident.
To sum up, visuals of flooded roads from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, have been shared as being from Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
(This story was initially revealed by Factly, and republished by NDTV as a part of the Shakti Collective)
