A news anchor warned that if Hurricane Ian “moves 20 miles to the west … you and everyone you know are dead.”
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Hurricane Matthew coverage in 2016 spreads without context as Hurricane Ian heads toward Florida
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- This clip is from 2016, as Hurricane Matthew stormed in Florida’s direction.
As Hurricane Ian churned toward Florida, a news clip predicting death and destruction tore its own path on social media.
"See this? Melbourne, Daytona Beach, all the way up to Jacksonville, this moves 20 miles to the west and you and everyone you know are dead," former Fox News anchor Shepard Smith says in the clip, gesturing at a screen showing a projected storm path along Florida’s east coast. "All of you. Because you can’t survive it. It’s not possible unless you’re very, very lucky. And your kids die, too."
But Smith left Fox News in 2019, and this clip is even older.
An Instagram post sharing it was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
The clip in the post shows Smith, who now anchors a show on CNBC, talking in 2016 about Hurricane Matthew, a Category 5 hurricane that never made landfall in Florida though it caused widespread flooding and several people died.
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But before Matthew skirted Florida, state officials and meteorologists feared a direct hit.
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"Evacuate, evacuate, evacuate," then-Florida Gov. Rick Scott said. "This is going to kill people."
In that 2016 broadcast, Smith was speaking to residents who were ignoring the state’s evacuation orders.
We rate claims that this clip is current, and related to Hurricane Ian, False.
Our Sources
Instagram post, Sept. 28, 2022
Fox 59, Fox News anchor to those in Matthew’s path: "This moves 20 miles to the west, you and everyone you know are dead,’ Oct. 6, 2016
CNN, Hurricane Ian barrels toward Florida, Sept. 28, 2022
New York Times, Shepard Smith, Fox News Anchor, Abruptly Departs From Network, Oct. 11, 2019
National Hurricane Center, Hurricane Matthew, April 7, 2017
USA Today, A state-by-state look at Hurricane Matthew damage, Oct. 9, 2016
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Hurricane Matthew coverage in 2016 spreads without context as Hurricane Ian heads toward Florida
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