Hurricane Milton devastated Florida, but these videos don’t show that

Hurricane Milton left a path of destruction as it made landfall Oct. 9 along Florida’s west coast. But beware — some viral footage circulating online doesn’t depict the storm.

An Oct. 9 TikTok video, accompanied by text that read, "Hurricane Milton just (made) landfall in Florida with wind speed 185 mph as Category 5," claimed to show the storm's destruction. The post included several video clips — an inflatable bear tumbling down the street, a gas station roof caving in, a house flooding, a portable toilet gliding across a parking lot and a phone pole toppling over. 

The video, which also circulated on Threads and Instagram, was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

 (Screenshot from TikTok.)

Hurricane Milton strengthened to a Category 5 storm when it was still over water, but by the time it hit Florida’s central west coast, it was a Category 3. It sustained winds of 120 mph at landfall but weakened to a Category 1 as it moved inland across the state.

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stated on September 25, 2024 in a post

Video shows footage of Hurricane Helene

Several video clips featured in the TikTok post depicted past weather events. One clip, of the inflatable bear rolling down a flooded street, was originally posted after strong winds struck a plaza in Mexico in May.

Another clip featuring what looked like a large boulder rolling in the wind was shared in September when Hurricane John hit Mexico’s southern Pacific coast. 

A third clip that showed an inflatable rubber duck sliding across a highway was filmed in Michigan and first posted in May. We have seen it also falsely described as showing Hurricane Helene, which made landfall Sept. 26 in Florida.

We rate the claim this video shows Hurricane Milton False.