Miscaptioned Philippines Typhoon Video Shared as 2026 Flores Tsunami

Labuan Bajo — A widely shared video showing a large wave striking a shoreline has been miscaptioned on social media as a tsunami in Flores and Labuan Bajo after the 15 August 2026 magnitude 7.7 earthquake in East Nusa Tenggara. According to a fact-check by Tempo, the footage was actually recorded on 9 November 2025 in Aurora Province in the Philippines during Super Typhoon Fung-wong.

The clip resurfaced on platforms including Facebook, Instagram and X from 15 August 2026, with captions claiming it showed a tsunami triggered by the Flores earthquake. Tempo’s English-language fact-check traced matching posts to Philippine-based Facebook accounts and local media reports linking the same video to Typhoon Fung-wong’s landfall in Aurora in November 2025.

The miscaption matters because the August earthquake did produce a real tsunami and an official warning in Indonesia. However, the viral video is not evidence of those waves in Flores or Labuan Bajo and does not depict conditions in East Nusa Tenggara on 15 August 2026, according to the Tempo verification.

What the verification found

Tempo reports that its team used reverse-image searches and cross-referenced credible media coverage to check the video’s origin. The outlet concludes that the footage shows intense waves hitting the coast of Aurora Province during Super Typhoon Fung-wong, known locally as Uwan, on 9 November 2025.

International coverage of Fung-wong in November 2025 described a powerful storm hitting Aurora Province with destructive winds and coastal waves, causing deaths and large-scale evacuations. One report noted at least two fatalities and tens of thousands of people moved from areas at risk of flooding and landslides as the super typhoon approached Aurora.

The same wave scene circulated in 2025 in connection with Fung-wong’s impact on Aurora’s coastline, months before the Flores earthquake. The later posts that framed it as tsunami footage from East Nusa Tenggara therefore reused older material with a false geographic and temporal context.

What happened in Flores

According to the Indonesian Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), a tectonic earthquake of magnitude 7.7 struck offshore near Nagekeo, Flores, on Saturday, 15 August 2026 at 04:58:24 Western Indonesia Time (WIB), equivalent to 05:58 Eastern Indonesia Time (WITA). BMKG located the epicentre about 30 kilometres northeast of Mbay, Nagekeo, at a depth of around 15 kilometres.

BMKG attributed the event to the Flores Back-Arc Thrust and assessed that it had the potential to generate a tsunami. The agency issued an early tsunami warning roughly two minutes after the main shock, placing several areas under alert for possible waves between 0.5 and 3 metres, including parts of northern Manggarai, northern Ngada, Ende and East Flores.

Sea-level monitoring stations detected tsunami waves below one metre at multiple coastal points. BMKG’s press release lists 10 sites where tsunami gauges recorded arrivals, including Sikka, Flores Timur, Labuan Bajo, Baubau, Bulukumba and Kolaka, with measured heights ranging from about 0.14 metres to 0.94 metres.

BMKG declared the early tsunami warning over at 07:30 WIB, or 08:30 WITA, on 15 August, after updated observations showed no further dangerous increase in sea level. The agency urged residents to remain calm but vigilant and confirmed that, while a tsunami had occurred, the recorded heights at the monitored coastal locations were relatively small.

How to read disaster videos

For residents, travellers and divers in Flores and surrounding islands, this case underlines the importance of verifying disaster footage before sharing it. Social-media posts can recycle genuine but old videos from other countries and present them as current scenes from nearby coastlines.

When checking a post, readers can compare the claimed time and place with official information, look for earlier versions of the same footage, and see whether any credible news outlet or public agency has confirmed the scene. Official updates from BMKG, Indonesia’s disaster management authorities and local governments should carry more weight than captions attached to reposted clips.

A video can depict a real and dangerous event yet still mislead if it is detached from its original date and location. In the Flores case, the misleading captions turned a 2025 typhoon video from Aurora, Philippines, into a supposed tsunami report from East Nusa Tenggara in 2026, obscuring both the real impact of Super Typhoon Fung-wong and the measured tsunami effects following the 15 August earthquake.

Sources

• Tempo (English fact-check)
• BMKG press release: BMKG Akhiri Peringatan Dini Tsunami Pasca-Gempa M7,7 NTT
• RMOL.id report on M7.7 Flores earthquake and tsunami warning
• Reuters report on Super Typhoon Fung-wong hitting the Philippines