Baseless claim that Florida prepped to block roads amid Idalia evacuation | Fact check
The claim: Video shows concrete barriers used to block off roads in central Florida
An Aug. 28 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shows a TikTok video with several concrete cylinders lying on the side of a highway in Florida.
“I wanted everyone to take a look at this,” says the person filming the concrete objects. “You can’t tell me this is not made for blocking the road. Is this gonna be a wall basically, where you can’t get underneath it, and can’t get through from north to south? This whole stretch of 408, literally from east to west, in Orlando here has got these pile of (barriers) here, and honestly, I think they’re going to seal this off.”
The claim surfaced as Floridians evacuated ahead of Hurricane Idalia's landfall on Aug. 30.
The video was shared more than 12,000 times on Facebook in two weeks. The original TikTok video was viewed more than 37,000 times.
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Our rating: False
The concrete fixtures in the video are pole bases, not road barriers. Florida highway authorities said the cylinders are being used to build road signs.
Concrete fixtures are pole bases, not road barriers
The objects in the video are concrete pole bases, which are often used as "foundations for outdoor site lighting, flag poles, advertising sign posts, pipe cradles, parking lot fixtures and many other applications that require a circular base," according to concrete producer Evercast.
The Central Florida Expressway Authority told Paste BN the fixtures in the video are part of a construction project for road signs.
“The objects in question are supports for sign structures," said Brian Hutchings, spokesperson for the authority. "People are still free to move about the city unhindered or corralled. The cylindrical concrete objects will be placed in the ground within the coming months as the sign project progresses."
Hutchings provided Paste BN with a Central Florida Expressway Authority document that includes a diagram showing how the cylinders will be used as the foundations for road signs.
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There are no credible news reports of roads being blocked off or residents being barricaded in Central Florida, let alone Orlando.
Paste BN reached out to the users who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Our fact-check sources:
- Brian Hutchings, Sept. 8, Email interview with Paste BN
- Evercast, accessed Sept. 11, Precast Concrete Pole Bases
- Evercast, accessed Sept. 11, About Evercast page
- Central Florida Expressway Authority, accessed Sept. 8, home page
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