A video of surfers chasing the waves at California’s Newport Beach in the midst of Hurricane Hilary went viral on Sunday, August 20. The post-tropical cyclone made landfall in Southern California on Sunday, bringing strong gusts with it. Following the viral clip of the surfers, many social media users commented that they wanted to be as stress-free and unbothered in life as them.
Although the video is authentic and not altered, it was not recorded during the hurricane in August, and Newport Beach is also not the actual location. The footage was originally captured in May 2023 at a surf spot in California called The Wedge. Thus, the timing was three months before Hurricane Hilary even hit California. At the beginning of the clip, a subtext also appeared, which read:
“The Wedge: Biggest and Gnarliest day of 2023”
Several accounts on X (formerly known as Twitter) shared the footage over the weekend with captions stating that the video was captured during the hurricane. However, a community note was added to a post by Shadab Javed so that netizens don’t get confused further.
Javed attached a link to an Instagram reel containing the original video, which was posted by the account @surfline on May 19. In the caption of the post, @surfline tagged a surfer named Julian Sage Burke and asked how big the waves were at the Wedge on that day. Thus, the viral claim can be considered miscaptioned.
Netizens react to alleged video of surfers during Hurricane Hilary
People who thought that the surfers were actually doing their thing even during a natural disaster expressed their amusement. However, some users pointed out that it was an old video and wasn’t taken at Newport Beach.
Effects of Hurricane Hilary on California and Mexico
On Sunday, August 20, tropical storm Hilary hit Southern California, starting from its coast to the deserts and inland mountains. The hurricane prompted rescue operations from overflowing rivers and compelled some of the largest school districts in the United States to cancel classes for Monday.
Hurricane Hilary brought gradually intensifying rain to Southern California, and some parts of the region are now witnessing more than half of the average rain in a year within just one day. By Sunday evening, the city of Palm Springs had witnessed nearly 3 inches of rain. The hurricane also toppled trees and caused mudslides in San Diego.
San Diego’s weather service office said on Sunday night that Hilary is the first tropical storm to enter California from Mexico since Hurricane Nora in 1997. On Saturday, August 19, one person drowned in Mexico’s Santa Rosalia after a vehicle got dashed away in an overflowing stream of rainwater. The mayor of Mulege, Edith Aguilar Villavicencio, said that four other people were saved by rescue workers.
Mud spilled onto highways while broken boulders blocked the roads and the water swamped the drainage systems. Neighborhoods from Los Angeles to San Diego saw tree branches getting torn apart and scattered around the streets.
The floodwaters in Palm Springs and the desert communities surrounding the area across the Coachella Valley caused dozens of cars to get trapped. The excess water was pumped out of Eisenhower Medical Center’s emergency room by crews.
U.S. President Joe Biden urged everyone living in the areas directly in the path of Hurricane Hilary to take precautions and follow the guidelines provided by local and state officials.
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Source: newstars.edu.vn