CNN reporter Anderson Cooper was recently hit by a piece of debris while covering the destruction of Hurricane Helene. During a live broadcast of the Category 3 storm, Cooper was highlighting the impact of the storm surge when an unidentified piece of debris flew into the shot and struck him on the cheek. While the incident was frightening, Cooper was not seriously injured.
“The water now is really starting to pour over,” Cooper said to the camera, showing the intense flooding. “If you look at the ground… whoa!” he shouted as he was smacked in the face. “Okay, that wasn’t good. Um, we’ll probably go inside shortly, but you can see the amount of water here on the ground. This is water from the Manatee River.”
CNN host Kaitlan Collins reassured viewers that Cooper was not harmed during the shocking incident. “I do want to note for everyone watching who is very concerned obviously about all of our correspondents and anchors on the ground, Anderson is okay. Just obviously understandably difficult to establish a connection when you’re seeing what’s happening with the wind and the rain. And obviously the deteriorating conditions by the minute.”
Hurricane Milton initially brought about substantial concerns among Floridians, as Hurricane Helene had just ravaged the southeast. “Extremely dangerous category 3 Hurricane Milton makes landfall near Siesta Key Florida,” according to the National Hurricane Center. “Life-threatening storm surge, extreme winds, and flash flooding occurring over the central Florida Peninsula.”
However, after Hurricane Milton made landfall, Governor Ron Desantis explained in a press conference this week, that the state fortunately avoided the “worst-case scenario,” a testament to Florida’s preparedness for storm. The governor said in the press conference, “We will better understand the extent of the damage as the day progresses and you have people that are out there assessing damage right now, first responders have been working all through the night to help people who were in distress. And what we can say is the storm was significant, but thankfully, this was not the worst case scenario.”
DeSantis continued, “The storm did weaken before landfall, and the storm surge, as initially reported, has not been as significant overall as what was observed for hurricane Helene. Right now, it looks like Sarasota County had the most significant storm surge, likely somewhere between eight to 10 feet. And remember, with Helene, we had 15 to 20 feet up in Taylor County, rescue missions have been underway throughout the night.”
“State search and rescue teams report at least 48 individuals have been rescued as of 06 30 National Guard search and rescue teams have worked overnight and successfully executed rescues of families and pets on the West Coast and from the destruction of the tornadoes in East in the central and eastern parts of Florida, the guard continues to work into the morning and have 31 rescue aircraft operational, and hundreds of rescuers engaged in over 125 active missions in 26 different counties, over 6500 soldiers are deployed throughout the state,” the governor said.
Watch Cooper get hit below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
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