Viral video compilation of Texas floods is AI

A viral compilation video being shared with claims it shows clips of the recent floods in Texas was made using artificial intelligence (AI).

The video features eight different clips and overlaid text that reads: “Texas - 13.07.2025 No sirens. No alerts. Just silence… then chaos.”

At least 135 people were killed as a result of flooding in Texas on 4 July and there have been multiple flash floods in the weeks since. Although residents did receive flood alerts on 4 July there were reportedly delays to emergency communications.

Clues that the video compilation isn’t real include the unrealistic behaviour of the people shown in the clips, who do not appear to react to the water as it approaches and submerges them, and the way pedestrians appear to fade in and out of existence, which is particularly obvious in the third clip.

Emmanuelle Saliba, chief investigative officer at GetReal Labs, a cybersecurity company focused on preventing malicious threats from generative AI, told Full Fact this is an AI-generated video.

She said: “The video is composed of several supposed timelapses showcasing different scenes, but each shot is about six seconds long. We know that generative AI tools can't generate long sequences, so this is a tell.

“Additionally, many of the scenes are inconsistent with local architecture you would see in rural Texas, particularly the areas hit by the flood. [Scenes at] 0:05, 0:17, 0:55 in particular look more like homes and towns consistent with European architecture. You don't see three storey row houses along the waterway in those parts of Texas.

She pointed to another oddity in the footage, when “at 0:36 a car backtracks onto a green roof, for example”.

She also highlighted the video’s watermark, in this case someone called “spookyydoo”. Although this exact compilation video no longer appears on the user’s TikTok page, some of the clips do. The account has posted several similar videos, which include the disclaimer “creator labelled as AI-generated”.

Rita Singh, research professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Security and Privacy Institute in the US, also confirmed the video is AI-generated. She explained: “There are eight different flooding scenes, each with exactly the same camera vantage angle, zero panning and absolutely no micro-jitter (an unnatural thing for real cameras). The same generative AI model has generated all eight scenes.”

It’s important to check whether shocking videos are genuine before sharing them on social media. As AI technology becomes increasingly sophisticated, it’s becoming harder to differentiate between real and fake content online. Our recent blog delved into what clues to look out for if you suspect something may have been created with AI.