FOX Weather meteorologist Bob Van Dillen is being praised as a hero after rescuing a woman from her car as Hurricane Helene floodwaters rapidly rose during a live shot outside Atlanta on Friday. 

Van Dillen joined “Fox & Friends” to explain why he couldn’t sit around and wait for first responders to help when he saw a woman in danger as the deadly storm wreaked havoc.

“I know that we’re swamped here with all of the 911 calls, because there are so many high-water rescues that we’ve already documented so far… [she] called 911 and, five minutes, 10 minutes, and you could hear screaming, right? You could hear through my live shot, real loud” Van Dillen told Steve Doocy.

TRACKING HELENE: LIVE MAPS, POWER OUTAGES, WIND PROJECTIONS AND MORE

“That’s her car right there,” Van Dillen added with a car that was almost completely submerged in the background. “So I just said, ‘You know what? I realize I’m with you guys on the air, but I can’t let it go.’”

The FOX Weather meteorologist “dropped everything” to help the woman get out of the situation safely. 

“I took my wallet out of my pants, and I went in there, waded in, got chest deep,” Van Dillen said as he was told by Janice Dean not to be humble about the heroic effort. 

“You know how it is. I was concerned that one, maybe there was a nice swift current, but the current really wasn’t that bad. But, the water temperature I was afraid of, too. The water temperature is probably about 80 [degrees]. So, all of those things were working pretty nicely, so, that being said, the water came up to about my chest,” Van Dillen added. 

“She was in there, she was still strapped into her car and the water was actually rising and getting up into the car itself, so she was about, almost neck deep submerged in her own car.” 

Dean then asked what would have happened if Van Dillen didn’t step up.

“She would have drowned,” Dean said. 

“You know, I don’t know,” Van Dillen humbly said. “I told her ‘OK, undo your seatbelt,’ she undid her seatbelt. I said, ‘Let me have your phone, let me have your bags,’ then put [her] on my back and we walked in… she’s fine, she was in shock,” Van Dillen said. 

“She was cold, shivering, so I gave her one of my shirts and she was in our car, just warming up, about 20 minutes later the fire department came, saw that we were OK and went on to the next rescue, wherever they’re going,” he continued. “Her husband just picked her up about five minutes ago.”

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“It was a good deed for the day,” Doocy said. 

Hurricane Helene: FOX Weather reporter Bob Van Dillen rescues woman from car as floodwaters rise in Atlanta.  (Fox News)

Helene made landfall about 10 miles west-southwest of Perry, Florida, at 11:10 p.m. ET Thursday, and impacts have been felt across the Southeast and into portions of the mid-Atlantic as the monster storm pushed farther inland and began to weaken.

While wind does remain a concern, the greatest threat from Helene continues to be the flash flooding as torrential rain falls across the region, sending rivers and streams out of their banks, onto roads and into communities, trapping residents.

The flash flood threat stretches from the Southeast into the mid-Atlantic, where multiple Flash Flood Emergencies were issued early Friday morning, including the first-ever Flash Flood Emergency issued for Atlanta.

FOX Weather contributed to this report. 

Vice President Harris has a 2 percentage-point edge over former President Trump in the latest Fox News survey of North Carolina registered voters (50% Harris, 48% Trump). Last month, Trump was ahead by 1 point (50% to 49%), for a 3-point shift in the presidential race.

Among likely voters, the race flips with Trump on top by just a single point, 50% to 49%.

When third-party candidates are included, Harris is up 1 point among registered voters (3% support third party), while Trump is up 2 points among likely voters (3% to others).

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The results among both registered and likely voters are within the margin of error. 

Harris’s strongest support comes from Black voters, urban voters, and college-educated women, while for Trump it is Whites without a college degree (particularly men without degrees), rural voters, and White evangelicals. 

Most Democrats (98%) and Republicans (96%) back their party’s candidate, while the small group of independents favors Harris by 7 points. 

Slightly more Harris supporters (92%) than Trump supporters (89%) are certain of their choice. 

Harris is viewed more positively than Trump among Tar Heel voters — 50% have a favorable view of her vs. 49% unfavorable for a +1 net positive rating. Trump’s rating is negative by 7 points (46% favorable, 53% unfavorable).  

Just 30% say the economy is in either excellent (7%) or good (23%) condition, while another 70% say either fair (30%) or poor (40%). This negativity is a far cry from November 2019 (late into Trump’s term as president) when 54% were positive and 44% negative. 

By 7 points, voters are more likely to think Trump can better handle the economy and about the same number give him the edge on making the country safe (+6).  He does best on immigration and border security, where he leads Harris by 15 points, down from a 19-point lead in August.

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Harris does best on the issue of abortion, where she is preferred by 16 points. Voters also give her the edge on helping the middle class (+7), protecting democracy (+6), and fighting for people like you (+5). 

The candidates tie on who can bring needed change.

“The race here will be close, but Trump still holds the edge on the issues that matter most to North Carolina voters,” says Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who conducts the Fox News Poll along with Democrat Chris Anderson. “So long as they think Trump is more likely to make the country more prosperous and safer, he’s the odds-on favorite.” 

At least 8 in 10 Black voters think Harris is better equipped to handle these issues and actions, except when it comes to immigration, where Trump eats into Harris’ lead with 25% saying he would better handle immigration vs. 73% for Harris.

The survey also finds the gap in the gubernatorial race in North Carolina has widened. Democrat Josh Stein (56%) has a 16-point lead over Republican Mark Robinson (40%), a 5-point increase since last month (54% Stein, 43% Robinson). 

The survey was conducted after news of alleged inflammatory comments Robinson made on a porn website. 

“It is unlikely the toxic nature of the Republican gubernatorial candidate will cause Trump voters to switch to Harris, but it could affect turnout,” says Anderson. “It complicates things for the Trump campaign to have to actively avoid the GOP candidate, and there could be some Trump-leaning independents who are so turned off by Robinson they decide it’s not worth voting.” 

Trump endorsed Robinson in March but has yet to comment on whether he’ll pull his support. 

Some 14% of Stein supporters split their ticket and back Trump in the presidential race, while just 4% of Robinson supporters back Harris.  

A few more things…

— By 17 points, those who say they will vote early in North Carolina back Harris.  Among the smaller group of Election Day voters, Trump leads by 20 points. 

–The views of the vice-presidential candidates play out the same as the presidential, with Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz receiving a net positive rating of 5 (46% favorable vs. 41% unfavorable) and Ohio Republican Sen. JD Vance net negative by 6 (41-47%).

–Views of President Joe Biden are net negative by 15 points (42% favorable, 57% unfavorable).

CLICK HERE FOR TOPLINE AND CROSSTABS

Conducted September 20-24, 2024 under the joint direction of Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R), this Fox News Poll includes interviews with a sample of 991 North Carolina registered voters randomly selected from a statewide voter file. Respondents spoke with live interviewers on landlines (138) and cellphones (615) or completed the survey online after receiving a text (238). Results based on the registered voter sample have a margin of sampling error of ±3 percentage points and for the subsample of 787 likely voters it is ±3.5 percentage points. Weights are generally applied to age, race, education, and area variables to ensure the demographics of respondents are representative of the registered voter population. Likely voters are based on a probabilistic statistical model that relies on past vote history, interest in the current election, age, education, race, ethnicity, church attendance, and marital status.

A former Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) contractor was indicted Friday for acting as an illegal agent for the Iranian government, the Department of Justice said.

According to a DOJ release, from at least December 2017 through June 2024, 42-year-old Abouzar Rahmati allegedly met with Iranian government officials and acted on their behalf.

Rahmati, a naturalized U.S. citizen and resident of Great Falls, Virginia, previously was an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) 1st Lt., a branch of the Iranian Armed Forces, from June 2009 to May 2010. The IRGC is a designated terrorist group by the U.S. government.

After being discharged from the IRGC, the indictment alleges that Rahmati lied to the U.S. government regarding his military service with the IRGC in order to gain employment as a U.S. contractor.

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In Aug. 2017, prosecutors allege that Rahmati began communicating with a senior Iranian government official with whom he had previously attended college.

Four months later, Rahmati traveled to Iran and met with intelligence operatives. During the meetings, he agreed to obtain and provide them with information on the U.S. solar energy industry.

Following the initial meetings, Rahmati got to work as a spy for the Iranian government. Prosecutors said that he eventually became a contractor for FAA’s National Airspace System (NAS), which allowed him to be privy to sensitive information.

Authorities alleged that in April 2022, Rahmati downloaded private documents related to the FAA and the NAS power and electrical architecture and passed them along to Iran’s government.

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He also gave the Government of Iran additional information relating to solar energy, solar panels, the FAA, U.S. airports, and U.S. air traffic control.

A Federal Aviation Administration sign hangs in the tower at John F. Kennedy International Airport, March 16, 2017, in New York.  (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

“As alleged, the defendant conspired with Iranian officials and intelligence operatives, even lying to obtain employment as a U.S. government contractor only to then share sensitive government materials with Iran,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division said. “When undisclosed agents of Iran or any other foreign government seek to infiltrate American companies or government agencies, the Justice Department will use every available tool to identify them and bring them to justice.”

Rahmani made his initial appearance in the District of Columbia on Friday afternoon.