On September 29, a state of emergency was declared in New York due to severe rainfall leading to flash floods in various regions. Amid this crisis, numerous videos began circulating on social media, purportedly displaying the extensive damage caused by the floods.
One of the visuals inside a supermarket, submerged in water, has gone viral on social media, claiming that customers inside the store in New York are moving through knee-deep water and buying groceries.
A Facebook user shared this video and wrote: “People grocery shopping in knee-high water during the apocalyptic flooding in New York City today as strange new animals float around them.”
This Facebook post can be seen here.
It is being widely shared on Facebook and X with a similar claim.
FACT CHECK
NewMobile fact-checked the above claim, and found it to be False.
Running a reverse image search of the video keyframes, the NM team traced a video report by news.com.au shared on their official YouTube handle, dated January 28, 2023, with a title: “New Zealand supermarket floods as a state of emergency declared.” According to it, the viral video is from a supermarket in Wairau, New Zealand.
With an open keyword search, we spotted another report by The Cronicles Australia mentioning that as a New Zealand supermarket in Wairau had been completely flooded, a state of emergency was declared across the country.
According to a Yahoo News report, dated January 2023, the video was shot at the Glenfield supermarket in Auckland, New Zealand. The city on that day experienced a record rainfall of 249mm. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins had also visited Auckland “to assess the damage from this event”.
Thus, it is confirmed that the viral video is old and unrelated to the recent floods in New York City.
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