US
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.