Weatherman Bob Van Dillen likely knew it was going to be an eventful night covering Hurricane Helene for Fox as the Category 4 storm made landfall, but he couldn’t have imagined just how eventful it would get.
Van Dillen was doing a live national standup in Atlanta early this morning with a flooded roadway as a backdrop.
“You can see right here we’ve got this lady that drove into the area that’s flooded out and she’s screaming right now,” he told the Fox & Friends studio hosts. After describing the scene for a few more seconds with the sound of the woman’s voice in the background, Van Dillen told the audience, “I just called 911. The fire department is coming.”
He then turned to try and comfort the woman assuring her help is on the way before cutting his live shot short, telling the studio, “It’s a situation. We’ll get back to you in a bit. I’m going to see if I can help this lady out.”
Fox Weather’s reporter Bob Van Dillen interrupts live shot to save a woman trapped by hurricane flooding, screaming for help. https://t.co/r254WZrciL pic.twitter.com/Aan7SRcDlo
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) September 27, 2024
Cut to video of Van Dillen carrying the woman on his back through chest deep floodwaters before literally giving her the shirt off his back so she could get warm.
HEROIC RESCUE: @foxweather meteorologist rushes to save a woman from rising floodwaters as deadly Helene slams Southeast. pic.twitter.com/Nv9tvtFJoF
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 27, 2024
Van Dillen wasn’t the only hero who braved the storm.
A U.S. Coastguard rescue helicopter flew out into the hurricane to save a man and his dog on a disabled sailboat.
🚨 HEROIC RESCUE! The U.S. Coast Guard shared a video of their daring rescue of a man and his dog after their sailboat was disabled during Hurricane #Helene. Both are safe and in good health.
📹: AST2 Hudson, edited by Lt. Cmdr. Kellerman, AirSta Clearwater pic.twitter.com/aD5lpt8cxz
— John-Carlos Estrada 🎙️ (@Mr_JCE) September 27, 2024
Elsewhere, on Atlanta resident was caught on video using a sleeping air mattress as a life raft as rescue workers patrolled the chest-high floodwaters saving people.
A person was seen floating on the flooded streets of Atlanta, Georgia on an inflatable mattress while teams carried out rescue operations at an apartment complex.
Follow live updates: https://t.co/ZlujbDVqlt pic.twitter.com/gzWdPezQmi
— ABC News (@ABC) September 27, 2024