Veteran Tribune Fox affiliate WJW/8 “Fox 8 News” meteorologist Dick Goddard almost left this earth after over 83 years (28 Celsius, as he says), but not due to his advanced age.
Goddard, and weather forecasters across Northeast Ohio, have surely repeated advice to those driving in flooded areas…”turn around, don’t drown”…but he didn’t take that advice this week in Medina County.
The Medina County Gazette’s David Knox has details, including very vivid on scene pictures of Goddard’s ordeal during heavy rain on Monday (note Knox’s picture of the roof of Goddard’s car):
The Cleveland television meteorologist and author was one of two people rescued from floodwaters that swamped their cars at the Interstate 71 southbound exit to state Route 3 in Medina Township.
“I’m thinking ‘I’m going to buy the farm — what a way to go’ — because the water was up to my neck,” Goddard said in an interview with The Gazette on Tuesday.
Goddard was trapped for about 45 minutes before firefighters in a rubber boat reached his car, broke the window and pulled Goddard out.
He was taken to Medina Hospital, where he was treated for hypothermia.
Goddard was not at all shy about his ordeal on his own TV station.
He wants everyone to know: “Don’t underestimate the power of water.” If it can happen to him, it can happen to anyone.
Another man was rescued after trying to open Goddard’s car door, then climbing up a tree to get high and dry. After being taken out of the tree and to a fire truck, the 21 year-old then caused a scene and could face disorderly conduct charges. From the Gazette:
(The young man) said he was grateful to the firefighters who rescued him and blamed his outburst on the emotional strain of the ordeal.
“I’m afraid of heights, and I was soaking wet,” he said in an interview Tuesday. “I was scared. I went under the water a couple times.”
Goddard tells the newspaper that if the 21 year-old man who tried to save him is charged, he’ll pay the fine.
And how is the dean of Cleveland TV weather forecasters doing?
With severe weather threatening much of Northeast Ohio again on Wednesday night, we saw Dick Goddard once again hard at work, slicing through the radar returns and tag teaming with Melissa Mack and Andre Bernier.
You can’t keep a good meteorologist down, we guess…
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