Fact Check: Video from Alaska shared as recent Haiti earthquake
On 14 August 2021, Haiti was hit by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake. Following this, video footage that shows the inside of a house during an earthquake went
By Newsmeter Network Published on 27 Aug 2021 5:00 AM GMT
Hyderabad: On 14 August 2021, Haiti was hit by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake. Following this, video footage that shows the inside of a house during an earthquake went viral on social media with the claim that this incident is of the Haiti earthquake
A tweet with over 1,390 retweets reads, "#Breakingnews 7.2 strong #earthquake rock the coast of #Haiti. #tsunami warning.This is the strongest #earthquake after 2018 . Pray 4 the People of #Haiti . Stay strong prayer #haitiearthquake." (archive)
Fact Check
The claim is false. This video is not from recent Haiti earthquake.
The video was posted on YouTube by KING 5 News, a Seattle NBC affiliate on 1 December 2018. The title states that it shows a home footage video of an earthquake in Anchorage, Alaska. The video was credited to James Easton, president of Alaska's Last Frontier Chapter of CFMA, who also tweeted the video on 1 December 2018. It was his video of the Alaska earthquake that was broadcasted by other news channels in the state.
Easton had replied to the viral tweet on 14 August saying that this video was taken from his house and was from the Anchorage earthquake on 30 November 2018. (archive)
On 30 November 2018, an earthquake of 7.1 magnitude hit Anchorage in South Central Alaska. According to BBC News the quake was centred about seven miles (11 km) north of Anchorage. The same footage was also shared by local news outlets KGW 8.
Hence, it is clear that the viral video is not from the recent Haiti earthquake. It is a 2018 video of an earthquake in Alaska.
