The claim circulated online a day after deadly flooding caused by a tropical depression hit the northern provinces of Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai.
Floods and landslides caused by Typhoon Yagi claimed at least 700 lives in the region when the cyclone ravaged Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar in September 2024 (archived link).
The same image was shared with similar claims here, hereAnd here.
Meanwhile, an X user shared the image herestating that the woman and her cats did not survive, but that the footage does not take place in Thailand.
The photo shows a dentist from the East Malaysian state of Sabah evacuating during floods in July. She told AFP she and her cats are safe.
July 2024 Sabah Floods
A reverse image search followed by keyword searches on Google returned the same image Facebook from July 1, 2024 after express condolences to the people affected by the floods in Penampang (archived link).
The photo was captioned: “Phoebe saves the cats.”
Penampang, a district in the state of Sabah in East Malaysia, was severely affected by flash floods after heavy rains on June 30, 2024. At least one person was found dead while a total of 296 people from 97 families displaced (archived links here And here).
Below is a screenshot of the image in the fake post (left), which appears to have been cropped, and the original Facebook post (right):
Further keyword searches on Facebook led to another after on the same day the woman was identified as a dentist named Dr. Phoebe who works in Donggongon, a town in Penampang (archived link).
“Yes, it’s absolutely my cats and I,” Dr. Phoebe Ann Zepher told AFP on September 19, 2024.
The cats have been safely evacuated to a two-story home nearby, Phoebe said, adding that they are “doing well now.”
Her cat rescue was also featured in local media here, here And here (archived links here, here And here).
AFP has debunked other misinformation linked to Typhoon Yagi here And here.
