Alaska News

Widely shared video showing house shaking during earthquake is from Alaska, not Haiti

CLAIM: A video from a camera inside a home is purported to show the house shaking from a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti last week.

THE FACTS: The video being shared online shows an earthquake that struck nearly three years ago in Alaska, not Haiti.

As images and videos emerged from Haiti following Saturday’s earthquake, social media users began misrepresenting the Alaska video from 2018 to suggest it showed the earthquake rumbling through a home in Haiti.

More than 2,000 people have been reported dead in Haiti following the earthquake that struck the southwestern part of the Island. In 2010, an earthquake of similar magnitude left more than 300,000 dead in the country.

Posts online sharing the video included wording that suggested it showed the power of the earthquake in Haiti. The posts sharing the video said to pray for Haiti.

But the original video was shared to Twitter by James Easton on Nov. 30, 2018, when Alaska was hit with a 7.1-magnitude earthquake. The earthquake left thousands without power and buckled roadways in some places.

Easton told the AP via email that the video showed his home in Anchorage. Easton tweeted the video, saying that he was “just a little bit shaken” by the earthquake.

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The video showed the house violently shaking and the camera footage soon being cut off by the quake.

“It’s amusing to see the video pop up every so often, but the focus should really be on the actual damage in Haiti,” he said.

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