An Australian news cameraman has been widely praised for dropping his live recording and running to help a family who were struggling to evacuate their flooded home.
In an unexpected moment during a live broadcast for Australia’s Channel 7, a cameraman was seen dropping his camera and running into the floodwater to help a family on Wednesday.
“Keep going, keep going,” his colleague and presenter Tim Lester was heard saying. “This an enormous storm... we’re just helping some people through the water here. That’s our camera operator Glen Ellis out there”.
As another news anchor in the studio, David Koch, asked if the pair were okay, Lester explained that Ellis was helping a family carry a small number of possessions and water through the water.
“I think you can see [him] trying to help people who are wading away from their homes,” said the presenter and US correspondent for Sunrise. “We’ve spoken to a couple of them and they tell us that already their houses hve been lost in the water, they’ve been flooded right through and theyve had to abandon them”.
The Sunrise team were reporting from Naples, which was heavily flooded following Hurricane Ian and had seen the destruction of its pier – amid other damage.
A Collier County county official said on Thursday that the Naples Pier, a top tourist destination, has been destroyed by Hurricane Ian and that “Right now, there is no pier,” the Associated Press reported.
Severe flooding was also seen in nearby Lee County, where Hurricane Ian came ashore as a near-Category 5 storm at Cayo Costa with wind speeds of 155mph and storm surges of several feet.
Thousands of people are believed to be awaiting rescue and 2.5 million are without power, officials have been reported saying.
Taking to social media after the on-camera rescue, Lester tweeted: “In forty years, never had a camera operator run away during a live cross. Spot on Glen. Good call.”
