Bogus Hurricane Vids Confuse, Horrify Online Viewers

Videos generated by artificial intelligence (AI) circulating on social media appear to show catastrophic damage and sharks swimming in a Jamaican hotel pool in the wake of Hurricane Melissa’s landfall on Tuesday.

The Category 5 hurricane tore through the Caribbean this week, killing at least 50 people in Jamaica, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, according to multiple reports. Viral videos generated through AI reportedly added to the hysteria,  fueling panic and confusion in viewers, according to the Associated Press.

“I am in so many WhatsApp groups and I see all of these videos coming. Many of them are fake,” Jamaica’s Education Minister Dana Morris Dixon said on Monday. “And so we urge you to please listen to the official channels.”

Melissa is reportedly the largest to hit Jamaica and one of the strongest storms on record in the Atlantic, according to multiple reports. The storm destroyed structures and homes across the Caribbean, though some AI-generated videos show additional, fabricated damage, including a devastated Kingston airport in Jamaica, according to the AP.

Though some legacy media reports note the extremity and devastating losses of the storm, others highlight how climate change may have primed the region for a monster storm, amplifying extreme weather narratives. The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season has featured several major hurricanes, though it ranks slightly below average in the number of hurricanes, according to E&E News.

Some scientists, including meteorologist Chris Martz and the July Department of Energy (DOE) climate report, have noted that it is unreasonable to link climate change to a rise in extreme weather events, including hurricanes.

The DOE report states that it is “naive” to assume that extreme weather events like hurricanes or tornadoes are caused by human impacts on the climate. Additionally, it notes that “most types of extreme weather exhibit no statistically significant long-term trends over the available historical record.”

Notably, corporate media outlets panned the DOE report all while being quick to link the Texas flooding in July to climate change as well as President Donald Trump’s policies — a narrative that several meteorologists disputed.