CNN’s Anderson Cooper was struck by debris during his coverage of Hurricane Milton

CNN anchor Anderson Cooper was struck by an unknown object while reporting on Hurricane Milton, which hit Florida late Wednesday, causing widespread damage and power outages.

Cooper stood on a riverwalk next to the Manatee River just offshore in Brandeton, Florida, braving rain squalls and 100 mph winds as he updated viewers on the storm’s progress.

“The wind has really picked up,” he said around 9 p.m. ET. “The water is really moving. You can get a feel for how fast the wind is moving there. You can see it in the light there. It’s now.” It’s just coming from the north, I guess, and the water is really starting to flow now – whoa!

Cooper’s report was interrupted by a white, square object shooting from the bottom of the screen, hitting him in the face and chest. The CNN anchor took a second to recover and then suggested that he and the crew would soon take cover. “Okay, that wasn’t good,” he said. “I’ll probably go in soon. But you can see the amount of water here on the ground. This is water from the Manatee River. It’s also water that comes from the land.”

Journalists sent into harm’s way to report extreme weather events for their station’s viewers often fall victim to these flying objects. In 2022, The Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore was struck by a tree branch while reporting on Hurricane Ian. Four years earlier, a sheet metal flew into Houston reporter Ted Oberg while he was covering Hurricane Florence.