March 13, 2018 - 2:30 PM
WICHITA, Kan. - A Kansas official has debunked a widely shared story that recently resurfaced on Facebook about a woman named Dorothy whose Oklahoma home supposedly flew nearly 130 miles before landing outside Wichita.
Sedgwick County spokeswoman Kate Flavin told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the story is not true.
The story was published in 2015 by the World News Daily Report and recently circulated again on Facebook. It claimed a woman named Dorothy Williams and four members of her family were carried in their Tulsa, Oklahoma, mobile home over northern Colorado before landing on an unoccupied car in Kansas.
"This is false; it did not happen," Flavin wrote in an email, noting the publication's website states the content is not true.
The story claims no one was injured in the home's 4-hour-plus flight amid winds that reached speeds of more than 220 mph. The story is accompanied with photos of storm damaged properties.
The website includes a disclaimer that states, in part, that, "All characters appearing in the articles in this website - even those based on real people - are entirely fictional and any resemblance between them and any person, living, dead or undead, is purely a miracle."
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This is part of The Associated Press' ongoing effort to fact-check misinformation that is shared widely online, including work with Facebook to identify and reduce the circulation of false stories on the platform.
News from © The Associated Press, 2018