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It's hurricane season in the Americas, as Hurricane Ian has made its devastating way through Puerto Rico and Florida this week. Coincidentally, it's also Hurricane Shark season, as viral videos and images of sharks swimming through the streets of flooded towns circulate their way through social media yet again.
The "Hurricane Shark" has been a phenomenon for over a decade now. In particular, one image of a shark swimming on the streets alongside a motorist during a flood has made its way through social media seemingly every major hurricane, and Ian is no different (the photo is doctored and hoaxes surrounding it have repeatedly been debunked).
only florida would have sharks swimming around on the freeway during a hurricane 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/YlUBUA91gX
— juju 💰 (@ayeejuju) September 28, 2022
The internet-savvy among us were ready to instantly debunk the old Hurricane Shark picture as it spread on social media, but it appears they were not so ready to debunk a new Hurricane Shark video.
The storm surge is so powerful from #HurricaneIan that it has brought a shark into the city streets of Fort Myers.
🎥@BradHabuda pic.twitter.com/RHY0kK5RHR— Colin McCarthy (@US_Stormwatch) September 28, 2022
After over half a decade of debunking this hoax every time there was a flood or hurricane, I can't believe I'm looking at an honest-to-god street shark.
Good to finally meet you, pal. https://t.co/hwMWX4Peqo— Jane Lytvynenko (@JaneLytv) September 28, 2022
The video attracted wide attention after one Brad Habuda tweeted it, wanting to grab Fox News host Greg Gutfield's attention with his shocking footage of a shark swimming through Florida's flooded streets after supposed storm surges.
He said the video was captured by "Ed Bell in Devonwood, a community in South Fort Myers just west of Route 41." It was then picked up by the @US_Stormwatch account and subsequently went viral.
Here's where things get confusing. The same video was also posted four hours prior by Twitter user @TruthsBeTold, who said his buddy sent him the video. The same user insisted the video was "real" and from September 28th.
Complicating his claim is that the video was posted at 10 a.m. EST that day, though Ian didn't make landfall in Florida until 3:05 p.m., according to WDSU, a local news affiliate in New Orleans.
This has all the makings of yet another fake shark-on-the-streets video, the likes of which have plagued the internet during seemingly every storm. Aggravating fact-checkers however, is the fact that the video did not seem to exist on the internet prior to being posted Wednesday morning.
At the moment, it's impossible to say if the video is genuine or not considering some inconsistencies with how people have posted it, but its genuineness can't be ruled out either, at least until we hear from the mysterious "Ed Bell" or @TruthsBeTold's "buddy."
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