Hurricane Hilary (2023)

Submission 1,504

Overview

Hurricane Hilary refers to the post-tropical storm moving over the southwestern United States in late August 2023, leading to unprecedented flooding in various parts of California. Several viral videos of people being affected by the floodwaters in California were shared on the internet that August, with numerous image and video hoaxes of destruction being shared to viral effect on X (such as Ted Cruz's "hurricane shark" post). The abnormal storm also prompted many memes referencing it online, particularly We Will Rebuild memes. After a 5.1 magnitude earthquake hit parts of Los Angeles on August 21st, the word "hurriquake" notably began to trend online.

Background

On August 12th, 2023, a tropical wave spreading through Central America resulted in a broad area of low pressure off the southern coasts of Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador. It was named Tropical Storm Hillary on August 16th, after it began to swirl off the coast of Manzanilla, Colima on August 16th, developing into a hurricane on August 17th. The hurricane weakened into a tropical storm when it made landfall in Baja California on August 20th and continued to track northward into California, turning into a cyclone over the southern San Joaquin Valley.^[1]

On August 21st, a magnitude 5.1 earthquake hit Southern California, with an epicenter in northwest Los Angeles. The combination of Hurricane Hilary and the earthquake occurring at the same time led to the phrase and hashtag "#hurriquake" trending on social media. According to L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, the earthquake did not cause major damage.^[2]

Online Reactions

On August 21st, 2023, X user @much4spice posted a video of several California natives dancing in flood water, causing X user @Phil_Lewis_^[10] to quote the post saying, "Please stay out of floodwater," gathering over 140,000 likes in a day (seen below). Floodwater is often sewage overflow from heavy flooding and lack of drainage, with means that it often contains human waste and harmful bacteria.

Several viral tweets were flagged as misinformation on X on August 21st, with one X user posting a filtered video showing a "flooded" garage,^[11] and another showing a video from an amusement park ride to show a "crashed plane."^[12]

"Hurriquake"

The earliest known use of the word "hurriquake" on the internet is a March 13th, 2010, Urban Dictionary^[3] post by user Fallie the Pally, who describes it as an event that has never happened yet, but if it did, it was sure to be apocalyptic (seen below, left). On August 21st, 2023, Merriam-Webster's official X^[4] account made a post that read, "‘Hurriquake’ is a new one for us, too," gathering over 55,000 likes in a day (seen below, right).

Various internet users used the hashtag "#hurriquake" and made posts about the event on August 21st, 2023, with X^[5] user @filupmolina making a post that read, "Writers are on strike so this is the best mother nature could come up with. #hurriquake," gathering over 3,000 likes in a day (seen below, left). The Instagram^[6] page @laloalcaraz1 posted a comic about the event that same day, gathering over 3,000 likes in a similar timeframe (seen below, right).

We Will Rebuild

The downgraded nature of Hurricane Hilary and the lack of significant infrastructural devastation led various people to share We Will Rebuild memes after August 20th, 2023. We Will Rebuild memes are ironic memes not unlike "Never Forget" in which images of minor damage are used to sarcastically comment on how mild a would-be natural disaster was (such as a knocked over lawn chair).

On August 21st, X^[7] user @LasVegasLocally posted one such "We Build Rebuild" meme, gathering over 6,000 likes in a day (seen below, left). Also on August 21st, X^[8] user @VegasIssues posted a similar meme, gathering over 1,000 likes in a day (seen below, right).

On August 21st, Redditor^[9] DakotaDevil posted a similar meme to /r/Reno, gathering over 100 upvotes in less than 24 hours (seen below).