Weather reporter saves screaming woman from submerged car after cutting live footage from ‘Fox & Friends’

A Fox Weather meteorologist broke away from a live report on “Fox & Friends” Friday morning to rescue a woman who was trapped in her submerged car and screaming for help, eventually wading into chest-deep water and pulling her to safety.

Bob Van Dillen did a live hit from Atlanta around 7 a.m. about the widespread flooding caused by Hurricane Helene, showing a vehicle caught in the rising creek bed in the background. Then he was interrupted by the woman’s cries for help.

While the live recording was still playing, Van Dillen shouted to the woman that 9-1-1 had been called and fire trucks could be heard in the distance. But as the sirens stopped and her screams grew louder, Van Dillen ended the argument and decided to take action.

Fox went back to the “Fox & Friends” studio, but the cameraman captured the courageous rescue in fast, chest-deep water, and Van Dillen was later seen guiding her through the deep water to safety. In a report after the incident, “Fox & Friends” host Ainsley Earhardt praised the weatherman’s decisive actions and called him a hero.

“She panicked,” Van Dillen said. “She really wasn’t making any sense and was still strapped into her car seat. She still had the seatbelt buckle on. And she had her window rolled down about that much and was trying to talk to me through it.”

Van Dillen said the car door wouldn’t open because of the water pressure, so he told her to roll down the window, which would allow more water to come in but also make it possible to open the door and get the woman out.

“It’s up to my chest and there’s a slight current, but she was a little lady too,” he continued. “So she was probably about 5 feet tall. There’s no way she could have touched (the ground).”

Steve Doocy, noting that Van Dillen is a surfer, said the woman “did what you’re supposed to do” by staying in the car, but the meteorologist “did something you shouldn’t do.” And that means that if the water is 15 cm high, it can knock you over. If the water is 30cm deep, it can wash away your car.”

Van Dillen said it was “hard not to” help the woman.

As we said, 9-1=1 is easy – they have so many calls. It’s going to take a long time for them to get here and the fire department finally got here, but it was about 15 minutes later. So she panicked. The water came up. She was obviously starting to get cold. So it was – it was – a situation developed.”

Van Dillen said it was notable that even though the car was half submerged, it was still running and the electronics were functional, allowing the woman to roll down the window, which was crucial to her rescue.

“It’s a miracle that the water actually didn’t short out all the boards and cause the window to fall down, because it came down like it wasn’t a problem and it fell right into the water,” he said. “But that was able to equalize the pressure and I was able to pry the door open, unbuckle her seatbelt and lay her on top of me, on my side. It was good to go.”

Watch the brave rescue and post-interview in the video clips above.

Post Weather Reporter Saves Screaming Woman From Submerged Car After Interrupting Live Recording of ‘Fox & Friends’ | The video first appeared on TheWrap.