Fact check: Altered image of sharks swimming near escalator resurfaces following Hurricane Ian

Hannah Hudnall, USA TODAY
·2 min read

The claim: Image shows sharks swimming in flooded Fort Meyers subway

Hurricane Ian, a Category 4 storm, hit Fort Meyers with 150 mph winds on Sept. 28. It flooded roads and buildings, shattered windows and tore off roofs.

One Facebook post claims the storm also swept sharks into the town.

"Sharks in the Fort Meyers subway, trying to get on the escalators," reads the caption of the Sept. 29 post, which includes a photo of two sharks swimming in a flooded area near an escalator.

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The post garnered more than 3,500 shares in its first five days. The same picture also surfaced in other posts on Instagram and Twitter.

The image is altered. It was photoshopped by a Twitter user in 2012 when the Royal Bank Plaza in Toronto flooded.

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment.

Image was captured a decade earlier and edited

Heavy rains in 2012 caused buildings in Toronto to flood, including Toronto Union Station, according to CBC News.

Soon after the station was flooded, a Twitter user named Jamie King shared a photo purportedly showing sharks swimming in the building.

He later revealed the image was edited in a Twitter reply.

"The shark photo is a hoax," King said. "I made it as a joke, in response to the flooding at Union Station in Toronto."

King confirmed this in an email to USA TODAY.

"I created the image in 2012 as a joke in response to unusual flooding in downtown Toronto, where I live," King said. "I find it scary that frequent flooding events all over the world are what continue to resurface a fake image of sharks swimming in a subway station. Unfortunately, it has become synonymous with flooding."

The image of the flooded building was originally captured by a CTV reporter on June 1, 2012, and published in a CTV News article about the flooding in Toronto.

"A mixture of rain and sewer water has flooded the concourse of the Royal Bank Plaza in Toronto," reads the photo's caption.

Our rating: ALTERED

Based on our research, we rate ALTERED an image purportedly showing sharks swimming in a flooded Fort Meyers subway. The image was photoshopped by a Twitter user in 2012 and originally showed flooding at the Royal Bank Plaza.

Our fact-check sources:

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Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Image supposedly showing sharks in Florida subway is hoax

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