Reporter Interrupts Livestream To Help Rescue Dog From Hurricane Florence Flooding

A reporter covering Hurricane Florence in New Bern, North Carolina, on Friday found herself helping a local woman rescue her dog mid-broadcast.

Julie Wilson, a reporter for ABC local station WTVD, was recording a Facebook Live video in a neighborhood filled with knee-deep water as rain continued to pour. You can watch the whole livestream here.

At about 1 minute and 35 seconds into the video, she encountered a woman named Tasha who said her daughter’s therapy dog was still in her flooding house.

Wilson went with Tasha back to the house. Tasha initially picked up her pet ― a Rottweiler ― to carry her through the water, had trouble keeping hold of the large dog. Wilson was able to grab the dog and carry her through the water herself.

WTVD caught the rescue on camera from another angle:

“Nobody’s leaving the dog in this mess,” Wilson said. “That’s what we’re doing out here.”

After the two got to a more shallow area, Wilson put the dog down and Tasha and her dog were able to walk away together through the water.

Tasha told Wilson that her son was in the process of rescuing a second dog inside a home.

Wilson said in the Facebook live video that the local community impressed her by coming together under the dangerous circumstances. Parts of North Carolina had received around 23 inches of rain by Friday night, and the National Weather Service expects that some areas of the Carolinas are still to get 15 inches more.

“There’s feet of water on the ground,” Wilson said. “This is not a small deal.”