He has been praised by his peers
A weather reporter in America abandoned a live broadcast to rescue a drowning woman amid Hurricane Helene.
Fox Weather meteorologist Bob Van Dillen was filmed wading towards the woman who was trapped in her submerged car screaming for help.
The incident occurred near the Peachtree Creek in Atlanta, Georgia.
Van Dillen could be heard providing reassurance to the woman on the live broadcast before he told 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, Van Dillen reappeared striding back towards the camera with the woman clinging to him.
In an interview following the incident, Van Dillen said that when he reached the car, the woman was still trapped inside with the water almost ‘neck deep’.
He said: “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 later told co-hosts: “I called 911, it was five minutes, 10 minutes — and you could hear her screaming right? You could hear it through my live shot, real loud.
“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, 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.”
Subramaniam Vincent, director of journalism and media ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, said Van Dillen’s actions were ‘an example of a reporter’s role intersecting with human responsibility’.
At least 44 people have now been killed across four States after the Category 4 storm hit the southeast of the US.
More than 3.5 million homes and businesses have been left without power and in Florida, water levels have risen to 15 feet in some places.
