New Jersey’s own Bob Van Dillen, a meteorologist with Fox Weather, rescued a woman in Atlanta Friday morning as her car was swallowed by flood waters after Hurricane Helene came ashore.

As he was preparing to report on rising flood waters in Atlanta, Van Dillen, who is an alumnus of Randolph High School, responded to a woman calling for help in a car behind him Friday morning, according to Fox Weather.

“I just put the microphone down and called 911,” Van Dillen said, according to Fox Weather. “I know that those guys are swamped, so we waited about five minutes. She was getting panicked a little bit more because the water was coming up a little bit higher.”

Fox Weather reported the woman drove into deep water and her car became disabled.

After a few minutes, Van Dillen headed out to the woman’s car and was able to safely pull her out and carry her to safety on his back, video showed.

The woman was reunited with her husband at the scene and Van Dillen continued his live reporting on Fox Weather.

Hurricane Helene had maximum sustained winds of 140 mph when it hit Florida Thursday night. It weakened to a tropical storm as it moved north into Georgia, but left severe flooding and destruction, including in the Atlanta area.

Later in the broadcast, Van Dillen said he was originally worried about the water temperature when he entered the water to rescue the woman. But, he said it was much milder than he thought, estimating it was about 80 degrees.

“I was worried about that. I was worried about the current, but as soon as I started going in I was like ‘screw it, I’m getting her,’” Van Dillen said during the broadcast. “I unbuckled her seatbelt, pulled her out, put her on my back and she’s fine. Everything worked out fine.”

The woman’s husband thanked Van Dillen several times during the broadcast.

As he continued reporting, Van Dillen pointed out the large-scale flooding in the area and said 60 people had been rescued from an apartment complex about a mile away from his location.

Van Dillen has been a meteorologist for over two decades, working in several locations around the country. He joined Fox Weather in 2023.

He grew up in the Shongum Lake area of Randolph in Morris County and graduated from Randolph High School in 1991.

He previously spent 20 years as the meteorologist for HLN’s Morning Express with Robin Meade, according to his bio webpage with Fox.

He has reported on a number of significant storms, including Hurricane Sandy, when he reported from Asbury Park.

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