Video falsely claims to show storm damage from Helene | Fact check

A Sept. 26 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) includes a mashup video that opens with a clip of waves crashing near a coastal home.
“September 26, 2024 Hurricane Helene effects Fort Myers, FL,” reads on-screen text in the video, which is a repost of a TikTok video.
The post’s caption reads, “This is looking like it’s going to be a complete disaster #helene. This is out of fort myers (sic).”
The original TikTok video was liked more than 66,000 times in a day.
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The video is miscaptioned. The storm footage isn’t connected to Hurricane Helene.
Hurricane Helene made landfall Sept. 26 in Florida’s Big Bend region near Perry, which is about 322 miles north of Fort Myers. The Category 4 storm reportedly left more than 30 people dead and millions without power from Florida to Virginia as of Sept. 27.
The mashup video in the Instagram post doesn’t show Helene’s effects in Florida, however. Rather, it includes clips that are over a year old, and in some cases aren’t from Florida at all.
The opening clip in the video showing waves crashing against a seawall near coastal homes has been circulating online since at least December 2022, when the footage was posted on Facebook. The same coastal homes are seen in footage posted by CNN in 2021, placing them in Scituate, Massachusetts.
The video then shows a clip of a yacht drifting on rough waters amid stormy weather. This, too, doesn’t show Hurricane Helene. The footage has circulated online since at least October 2022, when it was posted on YouTube.
Fact check: Unrelated storm footage falsely linked to Hurricane Helene
The video then moves on to a clip showing a residential area flooded by storm surge. This footage has been circulating online since at least August 2023, when it was posted on YouTube.
A clip showing heavy rain and a wind chime was posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Sept. 16 – before Helene formed as a tropical storm on Sept. 24.
The miscaptioned mashup video also includes footage showing strong winds blowing debris near a white pickup truck that was posted on YouTube in September 2022.
USA TODAY reached out to Instagram and TikTok users who shared the video for comment but did not immediately receive responses.
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