Hurricane Helene: Weather reporter abandons live broadcast to rescue woman trapped in submerged car
A TV weather reporter interrupted a live broadcast on Hurricane Helene to rescue a woman trapped in her submerged vehicle.
Fox Weather meteorologist Bob Van Dillen was filmed wading towards the woman who was screaming for help after driving into floodwater near the Peachtree Creek in Atlanta, Georgia.
He could be heard providing reassurance to the panicked driver before telling viewers: “I’m going to go see if I can help this lady out a little bit more. You guys. I’ll be back.”
Moments later, the meteorologist was pictured striding back towards the camera with the woman clung to his back.
In an interview after the rescue, Mr Van Dillen said when he reached the car the woman was “still strapped in” while the water was almost neck deep.
Mr Van Dillen left his live broadcast to try to help the driver. Pic: AP
“The water was actually rising and getting up into the car itself, so she was about, almost neck deep submerged in her own car,” he said.
Praising Mr Van Dillen for his actions, Subramaniam Vincent, director of journalism and media ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, said it was an example of a reporter’s role intersecting with human responsibility.
A flooded road near Peachtree Creek in Atlanta. Pic: AP
“I think the call he made is a human call,” Mr Vincent said.
He said considering the rising waters and the woman’s cries for help, along with not knowing when help would arrive, “it [was] a straightforward case of jumping in – a fellow citizen actually helping another”.
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One of the hurricane’s worst-hit areas
At least 52 people have been killed across four states after the Category 4 storm barrelled its way across the southeast of the US.
More than 3.5 million homes and businesses were left without power and in some parts of Florida, water levels reached more than 15ft above ground level, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said, citing preliminary storm surge models.
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By early Friday afternoon, the storm had been downgraded to a tropical depression with maximum sustained winds of 35mph (55 kph), the NHC said.
But heavy rains continue to cause catastrophic flooding in many areas, with police and firefighters carrying out thousands of water rescues throughout the affected states.
In Tennessee, more than 50 patients and caregivers were rescued via helicopter from a hospital roof after flooding caused them to evacuate the building.
Police officers found a handgun, a silencer and a red notebook described as a “manifesto” when they arrested Luigi Mangione.
The 27-year-old was arrested in December 2024 and charged with killing UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson in New York City.
Mangione‘s lawyers want to block prosecutors from showing or telling jurors at his eventual trial in Manhattan about statements he allegedly made and items they said police seized from his backpack during his arrest at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania.
The objects include a 9mm handgun prosecutors say matches the one used in the killing, a silencer, a magazine with bullets wrapped in underwear and a notebook in which they say Mangione described his intent to “wack” a healthcare executive.
Mangione with his attorney. Pic: Reuters
The defence contends the items should be excluded because police did not get a warrant before searching Mangione’s backpack.
Prosecutors deny claims Mangione was illegally searched and questioned.
They also want to suppress some statements he made to police, such as allegedly giving a false name, because officers asked him questions before telling him he had a right to remain silent.
Last week, Mangione watched surveillance videos of the killing of Mr Thompson, 50, as he walked to a New York City hotel for his company’s annual investor conference.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state and federal murder charges.
The state charges carry the possibility of life in prison, while federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
This week’s hearing concerns only the state case, but Mangione’s lawyers want to bar evidence from both cases.
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In September, a judge dismissed two terrorism counts against Mangione, finding prosecutors had not presented enough evidence Mangione intended to intimidate health insurance workers or influence government policy.
Trial dates are yet to be set in either the state or federal cases.
Paramount has launched a £108.4bn hostile bid for Warner Bros, challenging Netflix, which had reached a $72bn takeover deal with the company.
Paramount said on Monday that it was going straight to Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) shareholders with a $30 per share in cash offer for the entirety of the company, including its Global Networks segment, asking them to reject the deal with Netflix.
On Friday Netflix struck a deal to buy WBD, the Hollywood giant behind “Harry Potter” and HBO Max
The agreement means Warner Bros Discovery’s library of film and TV successes including Harry Potter and Game Of Thrones will come under the same roof as Stranger Things and Squid Game.
The cash and stock deal is valued at $27.75 per Warner share, giving it a total enterprise value of $82.7 billion, including debt.
But Paramount says its deal will pay $30 cash per share, representing $18 billion more in cash than its rivals are offering.
In a statement, Paramount said it was making a “strategically and financially compelling offer to WBD shareholders” and a “superior alternative to the Netflix transaction”.
File pic: iStock
David Ellison, chairman and CEO of Paramount, said: “WBD shareholders deserve an opportunity to consider our superior all-cash offer for their shares in the entire company.
“Our public offer, which is on the same terms we provided to the Warner Bros. Discovery Board of Directors in private, provides superior value, and a more certain and quicker path to completion.
“We believe the WBD Board of Directors is pursuing an inferior proposal which exposes shareholders to a mix of cash and stock, an uncertain future trading value of the Global Networks linear cable business and a challenging regulatory approval process.
“We are taking our offer directly to shareholders to give them the opportunity to act in their own best interests and maximize the value of their shares.”
Paramount said it had submitted six proposals to WBD in the course of 12 weeks, but that they were never “meaningfully” engaged with.
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