Meteorologist Cuts Live Shot To Save Screaming Woman From Submerged Car In Atlanta

FOX Weather meteorologist Bob Van Dillen was covering Hurricane Helene’s early morning arrival in Atlanta Friday when a woman drove her car into the floodwaters behind him.

Cameras were rolling as the woman began screaming for help live on FOX & Friends. The crew called 911 immediately, but the veteran meteorologist appeared to become increasingly concerned for her as her car filled with water. Unwilling to wait any longer, Van Dillen cut from the live shot to take matters into his own hands. 

When the feed returned after a short break, audiences watched as he pulled the woman out of her car and carried her to safety.  

Van Dillen joined FOX & Friends afterwards to discuss the rescue. 

“She was panicking,” he recalled. “She really wasn't making too much sense and she was still strapped into her seat. She still had the seat buckle on.”

Van Dillen said he wasn’t able to open the driver door due to the water pressure, so he advised her to roll her window down. Doing that brought more water into the car but allowed him to open the door.

“It's up to my chest and there's a little bit of a current, but she was a short lady too,” he said. “So she was probably about five feet. There's no way she was going to be able to touch [the ground].”

“I just put her on my back and brought her up,” Van Dillen, who stands above six feet, continued. “But you can see how high the water is, you guys. I mean, that's a street sign right here. It goes down pretty quickly. I didn't realize how deep it was. You kind of tiptoe in there and I've got my boots, but wow.”

When the hosts asked about his decision to rescue her himself, Van Dillen said it was “hard not to.” 

“911 is just—they have so many calls,” he explained. “They're going to take a long time to get here and the fire department finally did get here, but it was about 15 minutes later. So she was panicking. The water was coming up. It was getting cold for her obviously. So it was—it was—it was a situation developing...”

Van Dillen was humble as they praised his bravery, insisting that anyone in his shoes would have done the same thing.

"Her husband picked her up, and she's all good," he said, pivoting. "But the story now turns not on me, but it turns to how much flooding we've seen. I mean … amazing amounts coming in."

Helene made landfall as a dangerous Category 4 storm at about 11:10 p.m. ET Thursday near Perry, Florida. It was a Category 1 hurricane as it moved into Georgia hours later, bringing with it catastrophic flooding. 

At least 13 deaths across the Southeast have been reported as a result of the storm at the time of publication and nearly 4 million people are without power.