Weather Channel meteorologist Jim Cantore helped a mother reconnect with her son after Hurricane Michael hit Florida on Wednesday.

In a live segment from Panama City, close to where the storm made landfall and caused widespread devastation, Cantore and a colleague interacted with a woman who didn't have access to a cellphone. They dialed her son, located hundreds of miles away in Winter Park, Fla., near Orlando, and put the phone on speaker.

During the minutelong exchange shown on the Weather Channel's Twitter account Thursday, the woman, who spoke as she wept, said the names of certain loved ones and their dogs who came out of the storm fine and mentioned that her house was "OK" but that it's "going to need a lot of work."

After some back-and-forth about who should come to whom, the woman agreed to have her son drive to her.

"I just need you to be here — and a chainsaw," she said. The son said he had a power generator and a bunch of plywood to bring along.

Cantore was in Panama City Beach on Wednesday as the powerful Category 4 storm made landfall. At one point, the broadcast meteorologist helped out NBC News reporter Kerry Sanders, who was in danger of being knocked off his feet due to a strong wind gust.


Cantore, who is no stranger to covering extreme weather events live on TV, also was caught on camera narrowly escaping getting hit by a piece of debris, which in Category 4 hurricane winds would be very dangerous.