A Fox Weather meteorologist covering Hurricane Helene was hailed as a hero Friday after he broke away from a live report and waded into flooded waters in Atlanta to rescue a woman shouting from her submerged car for help.
“She’s screaming right now,” meteorologist Bob Van Dillen said while giving a live report early Friday, with the unfolding situation visible behind him.
“She is still screaming but we got you, we got you. 9-1-1, they’re coming, you’re good, you’re good,” he tried reassuring the woman.
But then he decided to step in himself.
“It’s a situation we will get back to you in a little bit I’m going to go see if I can help this lady out a little bit more you guys,” he said. "I’ll be back.”
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Van Dillen later described the moment: “I threw the microphone down, I took my wallet out of my pants, and I waded in there.”
The shocking video shows Van Dillen wading chest-deep through the water with the woman on his back. He said after prying the door open and helping the woman out of her seatbelt, she jumped on his back “and I dragged her through the water.”
The longtime meteorologist, who spent over 20 years with HLN before joining Fox Weather in 2023, even managed to save the woman’s phone and bags.
The woman, whose husband soon arrived along with the fire department, was reportedly in shock, but otherwise okay.
“Yeah, she’s great.”
Hundreds of people have had to be rescued since the monster storm made landfall Thursday night as a Category 4 hurricane in Florida, before moving inland and flooding parts of the Southeast including Georgia and the Carolinas.
Watch the clip below or at this link.