Video shows impact of storm that battered Philippines in 2020, not Super Typhoon Man-yi
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As Super Typhoon Man-yi bore down on the Philippines in November 2024, dramatic footage was shared in social media posts that falsely claimed it showed violent winds whipped up by the powerful storm. But the video was in fact filmed four years earlier, when Typhoon Goni struck the archipelago.
The video, which was viewed more than 9.5 million times, was shared on Facebook on November 16, 2024, hours before Super Typhoon Man-yi slammed into the Philippines' sparsely populated island province of Catanduanes (archived link).
The clip shows trees being buffeted by violent winds which also dislodge a metal sheet that nearly hits the person filming.
"Super Typhoon Pepito 240 kph," reads superimposed text, using the local name for Man-yi.
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The video's Tagalog-language caption read: "Pray for Luzon."
"Catanduanes and (nearby) Camarines Sur are already under Signal No. 5," it added, referring to the national weather service's highest wind warning level.
The clip was also shared alongside similar claims elsewhere on Facebook here, here and here, racking up an additional two million views.
Super Typhoon Man-yi brought maximum wind speeds of 195 kilometres (121 miles) per hour as it made landfall on Catanduanes, the national weather service said, adding that gusts were reaching 325 kilometres an hour.
It was still a super typhoon when it made its second landfall on Luzon, the archipelago's most populous island, on November 17, with the weather service warning of flooding and landslides and huge waves (archived link).
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Man-yi was the sixth storm to batter the country in a month; while about 20 big storms and typhoons hit the Southeast Asian nation or its surrounding waters each year, killing scores of people, it is rare for multiple such weather events to take place in a small window.
The video circulating online, however, does not show Man-yi's impact on the Philippines.
Typhoon Goni
Reverse image searches on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to higher-quality footage posted on TikTok on November 15, 2024 -- the day before Man-yi made landfall on Catanduanes (archived link).
The footage, uploaded by user Arwin Callo, was captioned in a mix of English and Tagalog: "November 1, 2020!! It's been four years (since) Super Typhoon Rolly, but we have not forgotten the trail of destruction you left behind. And now, there's an incoming #TyphonPepito that could possibly reach Super Typhoon Category."
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Rolly is the local name of Typhoon Goni, which killed at least 20 people and triggered flash flooding and landslides when it swept across the southern part of Luzon in 2020 (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video used in the false post (left) and the TikTok video (right):
The TikTok user also posted a similar video taken from a slightly different angle on his account a day later (archived link).
The user -- who identified himself as Arwin Cañeza Callo -- said he took the footage as Typhoon Goni struck his home in Malinao in the central Philippines' province of Albay.
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The video's metadata shows it was taken on the morning of November 1, 2020.
Callo told AFP he only uploaded the footage on November 15 because the approaching super typhoon reminded him of Goni.
"It was the worst. That day, I stepped outside our house because I had to check on the pigs in the pigpen. The wind got so strong, then a large iron roof sheet from the pigpen was already flying," he told AFP on November 17.
"I was lucky. It's a good thing it did not hit me."
AFP has previously debunked misrepresented footage of powerful storms in the Philippines here, here and here.
November 18, 2024 This article was updated to correct a typo in the 17th paragraph.