Copyright AFP 2017-2022. All rights reserved.
An article about Noah’s Ark, an attraction in Kentucky, has been shared broadly on social media after deadly summer time 2022 flooding. The story is actual, however it’s unrelated to the latest floods — it was printed in 2019 and focuses on a special a part of the US state.
“My whole life has led up to the comedic perfection of this moment,” says a July 30, 2022 tweet sharing an article from CBS News.
The headline proven within the put up, which gathered greater than 85,000 likes, says: “Kentucky Noah’s Ark sues insurance company over damage caused by heavy rains.”
The declare additionally circulated on Instagram and TikTok. Some posts shared a screenshot of the tweet with out linking to the unique article.
The posts come after flash floods in Kentucky killed dozens of individuals within the jap a part of the state beginning in late July. The flooding is the newest in a collection of utmost climate occasions within the US, which scientists say are linked to local weather change.
The article shared on-line is real. But the posts failed to say it was printed in 2019, whereas others wrongly tied it to latest flooding in Kentucky, corresponding to right here, right here and right here.
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The story about Ark Encounter — a life-size reproduction of Noah’s Ark situated in Williamstown, Kentucky — comes from the Associated Press (AP). CBS News printed it in May 2019.
AP reported that heavy rains in 2017 and 2018 within the northern a part of the state, the place Ark Encounter is situated, led the corporate behind the attraction to sue its insurance coverage provider for damages attributable to the deluge.
“The Ark Encounter says in a federal lawsuit that rains in 2017 and 2018 caused a landslide on its access road,” AP reported on the time. “The lawsuit says the road has been rebuilt. The ark was not damaged.”
The case was settled in 2020 — and AFP confirmed the positioning of the attraction was not broken by latest floods.
“The Ark has not been impacted at all, business is operating as usual,” mentioned Melany Ethridge, a spokeswoman for Ark Encounter, in an e mail to AFP.
She added that “the part of the state experiencing floods is 2-3 hours away” from the positioning.
Jane Marie Wix, a warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service (NWS), instructed AFP by e mail: “The flooding targeted southeast Kentucky, the foothills of the Appalachians, where mountainous terrain exacerbated the amount of water flowing into the many creeks and streams, before eventually causing significant to record-breaking rises on the rivers in this region.”
Prior to the floods, the area was already affected by poverty, pushed partly by the decline of the coal business that was as soon as the guts of its economic system. The NWS printed a report about the historic July flooding right here.
AFP has fact-checked different false and deceptive claims about floods right here, right here and right here.