Chris Post, a photojournalist for WFMZ in Allentown, Pennsylvania, was in the right place at the right time during Hurricane Ida last Wednesday night to record himself helping two teenage girls exit a car overtaken by flood waters.
Chris Post, a photojournalist for WFMZ, Maranatha Broadcasting’s independent station in Allentown, Pa., was in the right place at the right time during Hurricane Ida last Wednesday night.
Post, who spent 27 years as a firemen and EMS tech before jumping into TV news as a photojournalist four years ago at WFMZ, let his rescue training take over when a car drove into a flooded roadway.
Post says he and a reporter were set up at a spot that he knew “fills up pretty quickly.”
At that point the rain was horizontal, he says. There were almost a dozen water rescues in the area that night.
He saw a car come out of a gas station and head right into the flooded water in front of his camera.
“The water went up overtop the top of the car,” Post says. “The car started floating and the girls were screaming inside. I saw the car and said holy s***, and I started recording.”
Suddenly, the sun roof popped open and one of the girls climbed out, thinking she was going to go behind the car and push it, Post says.
Post yelled for her to stay put, because “she probably would have been washed down the road.” He then went into the water, sliding with the tips of his toes, as he was taught in a water rescue.
Eventually, he convinced the two teenage girls to get out of the car through the sun roof. By then, the car had drifted to shallower water where the front tires could touch the ground.
Post has no idea who the young ladies are or what happened to them. Perhaps the station could try and find out and reunite them with Post.
Ironically, Post does safety training for journalists and will be speaking on safety and security at the RTDNA Conference in Denver in a couple weeks.
“I’m not going to let someone drown while I’m getting set up for a live shot,” Post says.
Post says his rescue footage was picked up and shown by WPVI, the ABC affiliate in Philadelphia, and CNN.
Here’s Post’s Twitter address, @ChrisMPost, where he says pushes out a lot of safety information and his web page, www.journalistsafety.com
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