Old, Unrelated Videos Peddled as Recent Visuals of Floods in New York City

While the first video dated back to 2021, the second one is from January of this year.

A set of two videos — one which shows a person crossing a flooded subway and another showing several people walking in a flooded supermarket — is going viral as recent visuals from New York, United States.

(Swipe right to view all claims.)

At the time of writing this report, the videos had a combined viewership of more than 70,000. You can view archives of similar posts here, here, and here.

What is the truth?: Both these visuals are old and unrelated to the recent flooding in New York.

• The first video dates back to 2021 and shows a flooded subway in New York City.

• The second video could be traced back to at least January of this year and reportedly shows visuals from a supermarket in New Zealand.

VIDEO 1

We performed a Google Lens search on the keyframes of the video and came across a longer version uploaded on the official YouTube channel of The Telegraph.

• The video was uploaded on 9 July 2021.

• It was titled, "Commuters wade through water as Storm Elsa floods New York subway stations."

• A person in pink t-shirt can be seen walking through the flooded subway as seen in the viral video.

• We found a similar video uploaded on the official channel of CBS New York.

• It showed visuals of several people crossing a flooded subway, including the person wearing a pink t-shirt.

Flooded subways in 2021: According to a report in USA Today, heavy rainfall caused by thunderstorms flooded different subway stations and roadways in New York City.

• The flooding in Manhattan and the Bronx areas happened hours before the arrival of Storm Elsa. It led to traffic on roadways coming to a halt.

VIDEO 2 

We divided the video into several keyframes using a video verification tool called InVID and performed a reverse image search on them.

• This led us to the same video that was uploaded on the official YouTube channel of news.com.au.

• It was uploaded on 28 January 2023 and was titled, "New Zealand supermarket floods as state of emergency declared."

• Its description mentioned that the video shows a supermarket in Wairau completely flooded.

• We noticed that the video was credited to one TikTok user named 'stayhumblehustleh'.

• As the platform is banned in India, we used a VPN tool to access the videos uploaded on the user's account.

• The description of the video mentioned that it was recorded at a Pak'n'Save supermarket in Wairau.

• While we could not independently verify the location or context of the video, it is clear that it is unrelated to recent floods in New York.

About floods in New Zealand: The country experienced flash floods and landslides which forced the largest city Auckland to remain under a state of emergency, Reuters reported.

• It further said that four people lost their lives due to the floods.

What is happening in New York?: A report published in Reuters said that heavy rainfall brought flash floods to the city which disrupted subway service, and completely submerging some streets.

• New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency for New York City, Long Island, and the Hudson Valley.

Conclusion: It is clear that two old and unrelated videos are being shared with users falsely linking them to the recent floods in New York, United States.

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