Old video of New Jersey flooding shared as house wall collapses in Hurricane Milton
Hurricane Milton left more than 3 million homes and businesses across Florida without power early Thursday morning of 10 October causing extensive damage to homes and flooding roads. Against this backdrop, A video showing a house wall collapsing has circulated online with claims that it depicts the effects of Hurricane Milton in Florida.
Fact Check-
We started our investigation by running a reverse image search on Google and the results led us to the same video uploaded by NBC News on YouTube on 7 September, 2021, titled “Watch: Terrifying Moment NJ Home Wall Collapses Trapping 2 In Basement.” The description part states, “Video captured the terrifying moment a wall collapsed in a New Jersey home trapping two members of the family in the basement. The wall buckled under the weight of floodwaters. “My son called his father to say goodbye to him, he thought he was going to die,” said the mother of the family”.
Moving forward, we found other media reports regarding this incident. According to CBS News report, “Surveillance video captured the frightening moment floodwaters from Ida caused a basement wall to collapse at a Cranford home Wednesday," The report further adds, “The family was downstairs trying to clean up when the wall suddenly gave way and several feet of water came pouring in. The water just came in and, like, lifted me off my feet. I just remember being to the ceiling," Janice Valle said. "I can't swim, so I was afraid to leave that spot that I knew I had a little bit of air to breathe." Fortunately, other family members heard her screaming and rushed downstairs to help.
Hurricane Ida was a powerful Category 4 storm that made landfall in Louisiana on 29 August, 2021. It was a deadly and extremely destructive tropical cyclone in 2021 that became the second-most damaging and intense hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The hurricane then moved northeast, causing flash floods and tornadoes across the Northeastern U.S., affecting areas such as New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
Though Hurricane Milton caused extensive damage in Florida in October 2024, this viral video of a basement wall collapse has no link to it.
Conclusion-
Fact Crescendo found the claim made along with the viral video to be False. This viral video is old; it was captured in New Jersey amid the flash flooding caused by Hurricane Ida in 2021.
