Anderson Cooper Gets Hit With Flying Debris During Live Broadcast Amid Hurricane Milton in Florida

Anderson Cooper was struck with debris while on assignment in Florida for coverage of Hurricane Milton. The scary moment was caught on camera and aired during a CNN broadcast on Wednesday, October 9.

“The water now is really starting to pour over,” the broadcaster said while being pelted with rain. He wore a raincoat and a baseball cap during the segment but was completely drenched as he held onto his microphone.

“If you look at the ground … whoa,” he trailed off before a piece of flying material hit him and nearly knocked him off balance as he was reporting on the storm.

Flood water ravaged around his feet, and the wind whipped around him, but he quickly recovered from the bobble. “OK, that wasn’t good,” Anderson said. “Um, we’ll probably go inside shortly, but you can see the amount of water here on the ground. This is water from the Manatee River.”

After the shocking moment aired, CNN anchor Kaitlin Collins appeared on screen to ease everyone’s concerns about Anderson’s safety.

“I do want to note for everyone watching who is very concerned obviously about all of our correspondents and anchors on the ground, Anderson is OK,” she said.

“Just obviously understandably difficult to establish a connection when you’re seeing what’s happening with the wind and the rain,” she added. “And obviously the deteriorating conditions by the minute.”

Once the clip was posted on YouTube, viewers raised their concerns in the comments section of the video. “What if you or your camera crew get injured?” one person asked, while another said, “Save this man and keep him safe.”

Prior to the broadcast, Anderson shared a video of himself driving through the rain, writing, “Heading south in Florida.” The newscaster is a dad to kids Wyatt and Sebastian, whom he shares with ex Benjamin Maisani.

Similarly, NBC’s Dylan Dreyer was also sent to Florida to cover Hurricane Milton for the network. She shared her preparation for the hurricane before it made landfall in Siesta Key, Florida, as a Category 3 storm on Wednesday night.

“Grocery shopping is not my favorite thing to do, and when you’re on a hurricane coverage you got to make sure you have a little bit of everything because when the power goes out, this is it,” the meteorologist said.

“A lot of stuff that doesn’t need refrigeration,” she said. “We also have to bring our little medicine cabinet. I think we have everything, and we’ll see how things change when the lights go out.”

On the morning of Thursday, October 9, the NWS National Hurricane Center reported, “Milton is moving toward the east-northeast near 18 mph, and this general motion is expected to continue today, followed by a turn toward the east tonight. On the forecast track the center of Milton will continue to move away from Florida and pass to the north of the Bahamas today.”

“Maximum sustained winds are near 85 mph with higher gusts,” they said. “Gradual weakening is expected, but Milton is forecast to become a powerful extratropical low tonight.”