Unrelated old visuals shared as those of Cyclone Yaas in the West Bengal & Odisha - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
May 28, 2021
Multiple photos and videos are being shared on social media claiming it as the severe storm visuals of Cyclone Yaas in the eastern states of Odisha and West Bengal. They can be seen here, here, and here. In the wake of Cyclone Yaas intensifying and causing severe damage in these states, posts like these are being shared on social media. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Visuals of the severity of Cyclone Yaas in the states of Odisha and West Bengal.
Fact: The photos and videos shared in the post are old and unrelated to cyclone Yaas. The first photo shows the debris created by Cyclone Mekunu in Oman on 26 May 2018. The video in the second post shows the visuals of gusty winds hitting Uruguay in 2016. The last video was created using the CGI simulation in 2018. These photo and videos have nothing to do with the current cyclone Yaas. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Post-1 (Archived):
On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, a similar photo is found in an article published by the ‘Hindustan Times’ on 03 June 2018. The description of the photo states, ‘Debris litter a beach after Cyclone Mekunu in Salalah, Oman, Saturday, May 26, 2018’. This photo shows the debris created by Cyclone Meku in Oman. Reporting the same, ‘Voa’ news website published an article by sharing the same photo.
Post-2 (Archived):
On reverse image search of the screenshots in the video, similar visuals are found in a video published on YouTube in 2016. This video mentioned it as the visuals of a deadly tornado hitting Dolores city in Uruguay. When the same video was shared as the storm visuals of cyclone Irma in 2017, the Ukrainian-based ‘UkrNews24.com’ news website clarified that the video was shot in 2016, during a tornado in Uruguay.
Post-3 (Archived):
On reverse image search, a video with similar visuals is found in a YouTube video uploaded on 22 December 2018. The description of the video mentioned it as a simulated video created using CGI technology. A YouTube user shared the CGI breakdown of the same video. It can be seen here.
To sum it up, unrelated old photos and videos are shared as the visuals of Cyclone Yaas in Odisha & West Bengal.