Hurricane Milton is currently battering Florida, and it’s certainly not to be trifled with.
People have already died, homes have been destroyed, and many have lost access to electricity.
Officials are busy helping evacuate people in the path of the hurricane, while plenty of others watch on for updates on what’s going on in the Sunshine State.
However, that means a bunch of news reporters have headed to Florida and ended up right in the path of Hurricane Milton.
Some of them have been dropping in on people who’ve gained viral fame during the storm to check if they’re still alright, while others have had a taste of the stormy conditions themselves.
CNN news reporter Anderson Cooper was in Florida to show viewers what it was like being in the path of Hurricane Milton when he was struck by a chunk of flying debris.
Hurricane Milton is thrashing Florida. (Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Cooper was telling people about the flood water that was pouring over the ground in Bradenton, Florida, when he was suddenly struck in the chest by something.
Fortunately, he didn’t seem to be too badly harmed by the impact, as he was able to continue reporting, though he did say ‘okay, that wasn’t good’ and seemed to take it as a sign to pack things up.
He said: “We’ll probably go inside shortly, but you can see the amount of water here on the ground.”
Back in the studio, his colleague Kaitlan Collins told viewers that ‘Anderson is okay’ after being hit by debris even though it was ‘understandably difficult to establish a connection’.
A number of viewers wondered why he needed to be out there at all, with people commenting that it was ‘beyond stupid’ and ‘we don’t need to see a reporter risk his/ her life to show what strong wind looks like’.
People have died, homes have been destroyed and many left without electricity due to Hurricane Milton. (CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)
Others agreed and said that Cooper should ‘get the hell out’ of the path of Hurricane Milton and that ‘we have remote cameras that can tell us this’.
Someone else wondered whether this sort of reporting was ‘risking local resources to have to come rescue you’.
Cooper is by no means the first reporter sent to report on dangerous weather conditions who has ended up getting to directly interact with the story.
Sky News reporter Ashna Hurynag got battered by a wave while covering Storm Eunice in the UK while she was telling people the best thing to do was stay inside.
When his area was struck by a blizzard, sports reporter Mark Woodley was forced to play weatherman and stand out in the snow.
While plenty found his coverage hilarious, he did point out that he was doing exactly what he told others not to do as he grumbled that he had to ‘go stand out in the wind and the snow and the cold and tell other people not to do the same’.
Maybe from now on, we could do these sorts of pieces inside.
