Storm chaser jumps into action as a car falls through a collapsing bridge live on AccuWeather

AccuWeather

Storm chaser Aaron Jayjack was live on the AccuWeather Network when a bridge collapsed beneath a vehicle trying to cross a flooded bridge. Fortunately, the driver was able to be pulled out.

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00:00Right now we're going to send it over to a storm chaser, Aaron Jayjack, and he joins us live from

00:06Southport, North Carolina. Wow, look at those waters behind him. And Aaron, the waters behind

00:13you. But you and I spoke just a couple of hours ago. I've been tracking this rainstorm, that band

00:19of rain, since I walked in the door at nine o'clock. And tell our viewers, you experienced

00:25that rain band first hand. What was it like being in that rain band? And remember, Aaron has

00:33decades of storm chasing. Oh my gosh, the car just went up into the bridge.

00:37All right, go ahead. Just take it, Aaron. Go take it, man. Oh my gosh.

00:40Oh, this bridge is collapsing right here in this truck. Just...

00:44A jeep just fell into the bridge right here, guys.

00:47Aaron, if you have to go take care of that person, take care of that person.

00:58We will get back with you.

01:02All right, what are you looking at now?

01:04He's got to come out the back.

01:06This is Aaron Jayjack. He is live in Southport, North Carolina right now.

01:11This is the location where we had over a foot of rain. Aaron, we're going to let... Do you need to

01:16go and help that person? We can come back to you in a few minutes.

01:20Okay, guys, I got to help.

01:22Yeah, no, no, you go.

01:23Yeah, no, go, go, go.

01:24Aaron, please.

01:26All right.

01:26Those types of situations, Bernie.

01:29Listen, Aaron's going to keep in touch with us. He's going to make sure... The storm chasers

01:34not only are so important to document these events, but oftentimes they are first responders

01:40to a certain extent, and they will always stop what they're doing to help individuals.

01:44We'll get back to Aaron here in the next couple of minutes here to find out if everything is okay.

01:51Just a short moments ago, Aaron had to interrupt our broadcast to help save people on a collapsing

02:01bridge. Could you give our viewers an update on what has happened here in the last 15 minutes,

02:06Aaron?

02:08Yeah, very unfortunate, guys. Someone tried to go through the floodwaters here,

02:12across this creek that's been raging for quite a while. This band of rain has been whipping back

02:17and forth down to Oak Island, now back here. I saw probably a dozen, maybe two dozen cars go

02:23right through this spot moments before this band did in the last half hour or so, that many cars

02:29go through. And as I was talking to you, this guy came, tried to go through again, and the bridge

02:34collapsed. And so that's why it's important to not drive through floodwaters, because you never

02:38know what's going on underneath. Now, the road, you can see the road surface, water flowing over

02:42the road surface. But obviously, underneath the bridge, all the dirt has been washed away. And

02:47when this man tried to drive over the bridge, the roadway collapsed into the creek. Fortunately,

02:53we were able to get him out. Some people ran to help me. We busted out his back window. You

02:57could see the back of his vehicle is open here. And he was able to climb out to safety. Just a

03:02minor wound. He got scratched, I think, with some glass on his leg. But he is okay. Quite upset,

03:08though, about what happened here. And this is a dangerous, still a dangerous situation here

03:12on the North Carolina coast. Again, this band of rain that we've been tracking all morning,

03:17all afternoon, it still just came through here after we had had about an hour's worth of rain

03:24earlier today. It went up down to Oak Island and then swung back this way. Now it's swung back

03:29towards Carolina Beach area. And you can see now we've got some sun here. It's getting sunny here.

03:35We are still tracking this band, though. It is possible this band could swing back through here

03:39again. This is an evolving situation here on the North Carolina coast here in southeastern North

03:44Carolina. And Aaron, you and I were talking, and we were going to answer this question just

03:49a short time ago before that vehicle fell under the bridge. You've been storm chasing for more

03:57than a decade. Have you ever experienced a rain band like the one that you were in here today

04:04across southeastern North Carolina? Yeah, I've been trying. I've been racking my brain trying

04:08to think about it. I feel like this is the most intense rain band I've ever experienced. You know,

04:14we had torrential rains, probably four plus inches of rain per hour, including big CG bolts of

04:21lightning cracking down and a tornado warning. So it was pure chaos here for about 30 to 45

04:27minutes as that band came through. The one that started off down in Carolina Beach. I know you've

04:32been showing the images from Tony down there on the Carolina Beach. Lots of flooding down there.

04:36That same band moved through here and then pummeled this area for about 45 minutes or so.

04:42But yeah, that was, you know, I've been through a lot of storms and that was one of the most

04:46intense experiences I've had storm chasing was that rain band coming through here in Southport

04:50earlier. Tony, really quickly, could you safely walk toward the bridge and just show people the

04:56raging water on that stream? I don't want to put you in harm's way because we do know

05:00that the bridge is unstable here, but just to give our viewers the view of what that

05:07stream looks like. And this is what happens. Tony, I mean, Aaron,

05:13there were reports of about a foot of rain in the Southport area.

05:21Yeah, it definitely looks like we've got about a foot of rain here easily. It's really been

05:26piling up, even the parking lots. I saw a couple of parking lots earlier, you know,

05:31shopping center parking lots. It looked like a lake. So it's quite bad here. You know,

05:35like you were saying, this may not be a named tropical storm, but people that are living here

05:40aren't going to care either way because this is a really bad storm for them right now.

05:45All right, Storm Chaser Aaron J. Jack, thanks for joining us. And we'll continue to check back

05:49with us with you over the next couple of hours.

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