I know it has crossed your mind. It certainly has crossed mine. "What happens if those guys sent out to cover that storm get killed?" Well, sadly, it happened yesterday in South Carolina. From Tom Taylor's NOW column...
Two TV journalists are killed, covering Monday’s storm. Sad stuff from WYFF-TV Greenville, SC – “News 4 anchor Mike McCormick and WYFF photojournalist Aaron Smeltzer died when a tree fell on their SUV.” It says they were “covering the impact of heavy rain” in Polk County, NC when a tree about three feet in diameter struck the station-issued SUV they were sitting in. Authorities found the vehicle’s engine still running and “the transmitter in drive” when they arrived on the scene. But McCormick and Smeltzer had died and the vehicle was trapped by the tree. Tryon, NC Fire Chief Geoffrey Tennant says “I have never seen an event like this one” and adds that “I had done an interview with Mr. McCormick about 10 minutes before we got the call” about the accident. Apparently the tree roots in the saturated ground gave way and the tree toppled onto the news vehicle. More from News 4 here. WYFF is a Hearst-owned sister to Baltimore’s news/talk WBAL/1090 – which was busy covering flooding and other effects of the East coast storm that flooded historic Ellicott City, Maryland for the second time in two years.
