Anderson Cooper is inundated by hurricane debris

Every time a storm hits, I think we need to tip our caps to the brave men and women who are flocking to storm-hit cities and let us know that it is indeed very windy and rainy when a hurricane hits.

You might think this would be a gig for a network’s greenest reporter, but CNN had network headliner Anderson Cooper in Bradenton, Florida, on Wednesday as Hurricane Milton slammed into Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Cooper was in the middle of a live shot when suddenly debris flew out of nowhere and hit him square in the solar plexus.

Cooper was very lucky because it looked like the lid of a foam cooler or a file box. So I don’t think Cooper will be on the bench for a long time, but this was still a pretty good chance.

Regardless of what you think of Anderson Cooper, however, you have to give him credit for being willing to stand around in the storm for next to no reason.

He’s at a point in his career where if they said, “Hey Anderson, you need to go to Florida so the people who hate Trump can see how windy it is,” he would just shrug his feet step on the desk and say, “Meh, how about you let Blitzer do that.”

But he doesn’t do that. He’s standing out there in his CNN-issued raincoat, being smashed by debris.

And if you research Cooper for even two seconds, you’ll know he’s part of the Vanderbilt family. How The Vanderbilts. The one with the railroads and the school that just beat Alabama.

So I don’t think the money necessarily requires him to stand in gale force winds and get hit by pizza boxes (although I’d happily do that for money).

Maybe next time they’ll let him take some shots while standing in a hurricane…