‘Miracle’: Fox Weather Meteorologist Stops Live Broadcast to Save Woman Stranded in Hurricane Flood
By Movieguide Contributor
Fox Weather meteorologist Bob Van Dillen stopped a live broadcast to rescue an Atlanta woman trapped in her car during Hurricane Helene’s flood waters.
Speaking to FOX & FRIENDS from Peachtree Creek in North Atlanta at 7 a.m., Van Dillen heard a woman scream for help from her car, which was surrounded by rising flood waters.
Initially, the reporter called 911 and told the woman that the first responders were coming. The woman continued to call for help. Van Dillen interrupted the live broadcast to carry out a rescue mission, wading into the rushing flood waters and carrying the woman to safety on his back.
According to VARIETY, Van Dillen spoke with FOX & FRIENDS to recount the heroic story with anchors Ainsley Earhardt and Steve Doocy:
She was panicking. She really wasn’t making too much sense, and she was still strapped into her car seat,” Van Dillen said. “She still had the seat buckle on, and she had her window about this much down and she’s trying to talk to me through that. So I’m trying to open up the door, Ainsley, and the water pressure wasn’t allowing me to do it. So I said, ‘Roll your window down.’ So she rolls it down and…it allowed me to open the door… The battery is still alive and kicking in that car. In fact, I think the engine is still on…the water itself is relatively warm. The water temperature is about 80 degrees.
Van Dillen said the water was chest deep, and because the woman was about five feet tall, she probably wouldn’t have been able to escape the waters without help. “I didn’t realize how deep it was,” Van Dillen said of the water. He added that the fire department arrived about 15 minutes later, but first responders received “so many” 911 calls.
“I don’t know how it worked. And it’s like a miracle that the water actually didn’t short circuit all the boards and allowed the window to go down, because it went down like it was no problem, and it went down right into the water. But that allowed the pressure to be equalized and allowed me to pry the door open, unbuckle her seatbelt, put her on me, in my side. It was good to go,” he added when asked why the woman could roll down the window.
Watch a video of the heroic rescue below.
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