Dramatic footage showed Weather Channel meteorologist Jim Cantore struggling to face and being struck by a tree branch while on-air covering Hurricane Ian in Florida.
Cantore was reporting live from an intersection in Punta Gorda, Florida, Wednesday when he was nearly taken out by a tree branch because the Category 4 storm bore down on the state’s west coast.
The dramatic footage captured Cantore stumbling through heavy rains and 100-mph winds.
Cantore was seen placing his hands on the road as he staggered toward a traffic signal.
“Give me a second,” he said, barely losing composure as he regained his footing.
“You only can’t rise up!”
Some viewers were impressed by Cantore’s professionalism.
“Glad he’s okay!” one tweeted, while one other praised Cantore as a “legend” and “so brave.”
Others, nevertheless, were lower than impressed.
“Perhaps like, get indoors,” said one commenter.
“That’s the reason you don’t go outside in the midst of a hurricane,” one other concurred.
Shortly after Cantore’s dramatic moment, his Weather Channel colleague Mike Seidel reported from a balcony in Fort Myers that Ian was “considered one of the worst hurricanes I even have ever been in.”
“It would be the worst by way of covering 25 years and 90 storms,” he said.
The Hurricane Ian coverage was removed from Cantore’s first viral moment. In 2014, the veteran journalist made headlines when he casually kneed a would-be attacker within the groin mid-broadcast.
“Obviously, here … they’re already having an excellent time,” he quipped on the time.
