Video shows flooding in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on March 9, 2024.
Video of flooding shows scenes from Oman, not Saudi Arabia or United Arab Emirates
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This footage shows flooding in Oman.
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An Instagram video opens with a dramatic scene: A man hangs onto a pole as floodwaters swirl around him. Flash floods deluge roads and towns.
Text at the top of the March 10 video says, “Saudi Arabia, (United Arab Emirates), March 9, 2024.” Text at the bottom says, “Climate is changing due to 12,000 years cycle.” Later in the footage, text appears on screen that says, “To create a public demand for solving climate problems, share this post, tell your friends and acquaintances about climate change on your social networks.”
The Instagram video was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
But the video does not show flooding in Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates. Some of the footage is from Oman, a different country in the Persian Gulf region that has had severe flooding recently.
A March 9 Instagram video on an account called Oman Weather Updates showed the man hanging onto the pole in the March 10 Instagram video and described him as being stuck “in a wadi (a valley) near Madhah Dam and he was rescued by Royal Oman Police.”
From the two- to nine-second mark in the March 10 video, a flooded market street is shown. The names of two shops — Anwar al Khaleej Markets and Taiba Modern Bakery — are visible in the footage. A Google Maps search shows the neighboring shops are on the al Jmea Road in Al Buraimi, Oman.
A Feb. 12 photo on X also shows flooding in front of Anwar al Khaleej Markets.
Although the United Arab Emrates experienced intense rainfall Mar. 9, we found no news reports of flooding in Saudi Arabia that day.
Similar claims have said footage showed flooding in one Arab country when it was another. After last September’s floods in Libya that killed more than 11,000 people, social media posts misleadingly shared videos of flooding in Saudi Arabia that occurred seven years before.
We rate the claim that this video shows flooding in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on March 9, 2024, False.
Our Sources
Instagram post (archived link), Mar. 9, 2024
The Guardian, Weather tracker: Flash flooding in Oman and record temperatures in Western Australia, Feb. 16, 2024
Euronews, Four people killed in deadly Oman floods, including three children, Feb. 14, 2024
Gulf News, In pictures: Rain, thundershowers across the UAE, Mar. 9, 2024
The Arabian Stories, Oman weather: Torrential rains trigger flooding in Ibri, Yanqul, and Dhank, Feb. 29, 2024
The Associated Press, Old footage from Saudi Arabia misrepresented as scenes of devastating flooding from Libya, Sep. 15, 2023
The Associated Press, Intense rainfall sweeps across Dubai and the wider United Arab Emirates, disrupting flights, Mar. 9, 2024
Muscat Daily, Rains claim lives of 2 children in Ibri, 1 women rescued, Feb. 29, 2024
The Associated Press, Flooding death toll soars to 11,300 in Libya’s coastal city of Derna, aid group says, Sep. 14, 2023
X post (archived link), Feb. 12, 2024
