A weather reporter was struck by a tree branch while attempting to report on Hurricane Ian in Punta Gorda, Florida, with the difficult task of standing due to the strong winds caused by the storm.
Jim Cantore, a reporter for the Weather Channel, is known for reporting live from the scene of some of the worst weather in America, and on Wednesday, Southwest Florida was certainly meant to be one of their destinations.
Moments after Hurricane Ian made landfall, Cantore was making a report from Punta Gorda, about 20 miles away across the harbor from Charlotte.
Video shared by BNO News showed several storm chasers and weather reporters on the scene, but at one point, a fast-moving tree branch flew up and tripped Cantore.
“You know what, I think I’m just going to stop here for a second,” Cantore said in the Weather Channel broadcast as he struggled to hold on to a street sign. “Just give me a second. I’m fine “, he assured.
According to the transmission, the winds in that place had gusts of 110 mph. Footage showed other branches continuing to fly across the intersection, along with at least one street sign that had been blown down by the wind.
“You just can’t stand up,” he snorted. Cantore, throwing himself back into the studio.
Local emergency managers told residents to evacuate the Punta Gorda area, which was also directly hit by Hurricane Charley in 2004.
Reporters in the midst of Hurricane Ian
This is not the only reporter that has been in the news during the coverage of Hurricane Ian in Florida, and that is that a journalist from South Florida caused a stir on social networks when she broadcast the arrival of the storm live and decided to cover her microphone with a condom to “protect the equipment“ .
Kyla Galer, reporter and anchor for NBC2 in Fort Myers, where the hurricane made landfall today Ian in category 4, broadcast from outside live and with a condom covering his microphone, so several viewers began to send him messages on their social media accounts.
Unlike Charley, Hurricane Ian was a much larger storm , just shy of Category 5, the most powerful rating for storms. Destructive flooding from storm surge had already inundated Naples and other nearby coastal communities, with parts of central Florida expecting up to 2 feet of rain as the storm moved through the state.
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· Don’t forget your pets! Video captures man saving kitten amid Hurricane Ian in Naples