Forrest Saunders of WTXL in Chiefland, Florida gives update on Hurricane Idalia.Photo:WTXL Tallahassee
WTXL Tallahassee
A weather reporter has gone viral afterHurricane Idaliacaused a portion of Chiefland, Florida to lose power while he was broadcasting live.
Saunders was speaking to his in-studio coworkers and audience members about dangerous storm surges and increasing wind speeds when Idalia,a category 4 hurricaneat the time, caused the nighttime shoot to unexpectedly go dark.
Mid-sentence, the reporter exclaimed, “We just lost power now!” Saunders added, “You just saw the power go out. If you can’t see me, I apologize, but that just happened.”
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
“In fact, I’m seeing some alerts going off in other parts of town here,” Saunders explained as he continued giving real-time updates to those watching the live broadcast. “We definitely lost power in this block of Chiefland and that again is because the wind is so intense,” he explained after pointing out that traffic lights remained working farther out.
Elizabeth Copeland, a meteorologist at the news station, later shared a clip of the footage. “One of the best timed live shots I’ve seen#HurricaneIdalia#Idalia#poweroutageThis is our Capital reporter covering storm conditions in Chiefland,” she tweeted onTwitter, now known as X, early Wednesday morning.
Saunders later shared a tweet with video of lights flickering off and on at Florida Gov.Ron DeSantis' press conference about Idalia’s arrival on his own X page.
“And it’s gonna bevery, very dangerous,” DeSantis, 44, said at the podium as some of the electricity went out. After briefly pausing, he added, “And there we go with our power here.” Seconds later, the lights came back on.
DeSantis also answered questions from reporters abouta large tree that had fallen onto the Governor’s Mansionwhile his wifeCasey DeSantisand their three children were home. He said his family was fine after receiving confirmation from Casey.
“[Casey] called me probably about 45 minutes ago and told me, says, I guess, There’s a really ancient oak tree split in half and part of it fell,” DeSantis explained.
He then clarified, “I don’t know that it fell on like, the residence, per se. I think it was a little bit off to the side, so that’s gonna be cleared.” The governor added that if the whole oak tree has to be cut down and cleared, then “that’s just gonna be more room for my kids to hit baseballs in.”
However, EMS director Andy Fossa later toldNBC Newsthat the victim in the Pasco County crash would not be classified as a storm fatality.
“The weather was not that bad when the gentleman was driving,” Fossa told the outlet. “He was driving on a extremely curvy road, the roads were slick. Unfortunately, he hit a tree and lost his life. First responders were able to get to him immediately, so we’re not gonna classify it as a storm fatality, but just as a traffic fatality.”
source: people.com
