Fox News correspondent blown around by high winds from Hurricane Ida: ‘It’s just not safe out there’

Residents across states including Louisiana and Mississippi saw their communities battered by extreme winds as Hurricane Ida made its way inland early this week.

On Sunday, one Fox News reporter made clear just how dangerous the storms can be when viewers saw him get blown down the sidewalk by high winds, Mediaite reported.

According to Mediaite, Fox weather correspondent Robert Ray was covering the storm in New Orleans when he said, “We had to retreat here into this parking garage, it’s just not safe out there at all.”

Ida brings 90-mph gusts

Ray went on to report that winds were hitting speeds as high as 90 miles per hour. “I’m going to step back slowly because I have an anemometer that I’ve been checking the wind speeds with,” the reporter explained, according to Mediaite. “We have had gust up to almost 90 miles per hour, sustained over 60. And the second I step out, you’re going to see —”

Before the journalist could finish his sentence, a gust of wind carried him out of the parking garage and “several feet” along an adjacent sidewalk, Mediaite said.

#Ida is battering #NewOrleans #HurricaneIda #FoxWeather pic.twitter.com/kJGYMs3jOl

— Robert Ray (@RobertRayJourno) August 29, 2021

“This is no joke”

Ray then found himself being caught up by the wind a second time, but was able to grab on to the entrance of the building to keep his balance. “This is no joke, folks,” he told those watching at home, according to Mediaite. “Everything outside in New Orleans right now and many spots is unraveling and falling apart.”

Ray added: “We have seen over the past three or four hours, Jon, aluminum coming off buildings…just stuff starting to move off of people’s homes.”

The reporter called it “a very serious situation right now. If anyone is out there,” he said, “they need to get into shelter. I cannot stress this enough as the storm is just battering New Orleans right now.”

New Orleans without power

Fox News reported Sunday that the energy company Entergy had confirmed that the entire city of New Orleans is without electricity in the wake of the storm.

The city’s Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness put out a tweet that explained pumps used to drain stormwater and provide clean drinking water were relying on generators.

Much of New Orleans is below sea level, a fact that makes the city particularly vulnerable to flooding. That was made evident in 2005 when the disastrous and deadly Hurricane Katrina left large sections of New Orleans underwater. As for Ida, at least one person has been killed by the storm thus far, according to reports.

The post Fox News correspondent blown around by high winds from Hurricane Ida: ‘It’s just not safe out there’ first appeared on Conservative Institute.