Videos show Universal Studios attraction, not Hilary storm damage in California

Videos shared online on Sunday, Aug. 20 claim to show widespread damage and flooding from Hilary in and around Los Angeles. Another post claims to show video of a plane crash landing in Long Beach, California, as a result of Hilary and an earthquake. The four videos have racked up a combined total of nearly 13 million views on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

Some people in the posts’ comments were skeptical that the videos actually showed damage from Hilary in Southern California. 

THE QUESTION

Do these videos show flooding and damage from Tropical Storm Hilary in Southern California?

THE SOURCES

THE ANSWER

The videos do not show storm damage from Hilary in Southern California. They show an attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood. 

WHAT WE FOUND

The tour takes visitors through a fake flash flood in an area used to shoot “Big Fat Liar” and “Fletch Lives,” an earthquake simulation used in movies and TV shows, and the plane crash set in Steven Spielberg’s “War of the Worlds,” according to Universal Studios Hollywood blog post.

VERIFY used Google’s reverse image search tool to trace the social media posts back to videos of the Universal Studios attraction. 

Two of the online posts falsely claim to show flooding at Universal and in Studio City, California, on Aug. 20. VERIFY found two YouTube videos posted in 2013 and 2018 that show nearly identical scenes from the Universal Studios tour’s flash flood, including the same “Mercado” building and wagon.

VERIFY found the same scenery at about 25 seconds into this 2016 YouTube video of the attraction. More photos posted to Google Maps in 2023 also show the plane crash scene on the Universal tour.

Universal Studios Hollywood has not posted about storm damage to the theme park on any of its social media accounts.