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

Standing on a riverwalk next to the Manatee River, just off the coast in Brandeton, Florida, Cooper weathered downpours and 100 mph winds as he updated viewers on the storm’s progress.

“The winds have really picked up,” he said around 9 p.m. ET. “The water is really moving. You can get a sense of how fast the wind is moving there. You can see it there in the light. It’s now coming from the north, I think, and the water is really starting to overflow now. When you look at the graph – whoa!’

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

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