Culture

Reporters Can Barely Withstand Hurricane Irma’s Powerful Gusts, And One Weather Channel Cameraman Finds Out The Hard Way

Hurricane Irma, which is currently drenching South Florida and preparing to zero in on the state’s West coast, officially made U.S. landfall in Cudjoe Key at 9:10 a.m on Sunday. In doing so, it became the first Category 4 storm to strike the Florida Keys since Hurricane Donna in 1960. As one can imagine, many unfortunate reporters and their camera crews are enduring quite the struggle against 90+ mph wind gusts. This would include the above clip’s meteorologist, whose valiant struggle against the wind was real.

Irma proved itself to be a deadly system while tearing through the Caribbean, but the Internet is showing some gallows humor by observing how (through an older NOLA clip) the Weather Channel always trucks out its crews.

Case in point — TWC meteorologist Mike Seidel could barely stand up during Saturday night coverage of Irma’s early squalls in Miami. (This clip is insane.)

Fortunately, Seidel later found a dry place and felt sturdy enough to tweet that video, which is miraculous to some degree. For as TODAY later pointed out, he also had to hold onto a tree to keep from tumbling away in the wind.

On Sunday morning, one Weather Channel cameraman (also working with Mike Seidel) wasn’t so lucky in Miami. He toppled right over during a live shot, and Twitter definitely noticed his plight.

https://twitter.com/Robert1288/status/906875141216505858

Brian Stelter posted multiple screenshots of the moment and noted that the cameraman stood back up and returned to work.

And of course, this sort of stuff — completely fake — is also circulating. Stay safe, everyone!

https://twitter.com/coolcam101/status/906876132422643712

(Via Breaking 911, TODAY & The Weather Channel)