In August 2017, as a devastating hurricane hit Texas, a photograph taken the previous year of a Texas home that survived flooding through the use of a dam was recirculated online, along with the claim that the pictured dam was "inflatable":
The timing of the posts caused some viewers to wonder whether the photograph showed flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey, which made landfall in late August 2017:
I don't know if this is from #harvey flood but wow: https://t.co/3f4gdpUlsp
— Jaimy Jones (@Jaimyjones) August 29, 2017
This picture was actually taken in June 2016 (more than a year before Hurricane Harvey), after thousands of homes were evacuated in Brazoria County, Texas, due to a severe flood. In an attempt to protect his home, local resident Randy Wagner purchased an "Aqua Dam" and installed it around his property, as a local television station reported at the time:
Of the thousands of homes evacuated and damaged by flooding in Brazoria County, one family’s home is high and dry on West FM 1462 in Rosharon.
Randy Wagner decided to take a chance on something called an Aqua Dam, a product he discovered online.
The product in question is not "inflatable" in the sense that it is filled with air; rather, the AquaDam encloses water:
