DUBAI: Social media users are flooding the Internet with fake images of Hurricane Harvey as it unleashes one of the heaviest downpours in US history over Texas.
One debunked photo shows a shark swimming on what is said to be a flooded road.
That photo of a shark swimming on a flooded highway in Houston? It's a fake, and a very old one too. https://t.co/oSLFu5yYyk pic.twitter.com/90HyLqzyUP
— Christiaan Triebert (@trbrtc) August 28, 2017
Another shows floodwater submerging airplanes.
If you see this picture on Twitter today, it's fake. https://t.co/bIC4Ump6a9#HurricaneHarvey #Houston #houstonflood pic.twitter.com/59RpGzmtH7
— Chris Kitching (@chriskitching) August 28, 2017
Meanwhile, another photo shows a looted shop which the sharer claims was ransacked during the natural disaster.
2 horrible people:
Anyone looting in #Houston after #Harvey
Anyone posting fake photos of looting after #HurricaneHarvey
Years old photo: pic.twitter.com/jqpFPSd3uE— Cameron Gray (@Cameron_Gray) August 28, 2017
All the snaps have been proven to be either digitally faked or from previous events.
Forecasters expect the system to stay over water with 45 mph (72 kph) winds for 36 hours and then head back inland east of Houston sometime Wednesday. The system will then head north and lose its tropical strength.
Before then, up to 20 more inches (51 centimeters) of rain could fall, National Weather Service Director Louis Uccellini said Monday.
— With AP
