Mumbai highway flooding video falsely shared linking to Hurricane Milton in Florida
Hurricane Milton plowed into the Atlantic Ocean after tearing a path of destruction across Florida, U.S. on 9 October killing at least 15 people and knocking out power to millions. Against this backdrop, an image showing a massive traffic on a highway is widely circulating on social media with the claim that it shows people stuck on a bridge in a traffic jam during Hurricane Milton in Florida.
The caption of the post states, “Prayers for Florida. These people are STUCK on the bridge during Hurricane Milton”.
Fact Check-
We started our investigation by running a reverse image search on Google and the results led us to the same video uploaded on Instagram on 25 September 2024 with the caption: “Mumbai Rain.” It also has text over the video that says: “Western Exp Highway.” The Western Express Highway is a major eight to ten lane road that runs north to south across Mumbai. This on-screen text is cropped out of the version shared.
Heavy rains in Mumbai at the end of September flooded streets, affected train services and flights, and left at least four people. Some parts of the city received up to 11 inches of rain. Similar videos showing the September flooding of the Mumbai highway were shared by many media outlets.
Hurricane Milton hit the US on 9 October, and this viral video was available on the internet from September 25; this indicates that it is unrelated to Hurricane and not from Florida.
Furthermore, when we looked into news stories about Hurricane Milton, we discovered that Florida was experiencing traffic jams and gas shortages due to mass evacuations. But this viral video does not show people stuck on a bridge in a traffic jam during Hurricane Milton in Florida.
Conclusion-
Fact Crescendo found the claim made along with the viral video to be False. The viral video shows Western Express Highway in Mumbai, India, after heavy rains caused flooding. It has no link to Hurricane Milton.